Nursery Web Spider Pisaura mirabilis

The nursery web spider does not construct a web to catch prey; it waits on a leaf ready to pounce. It builds a tent-like silk web (above) to protect its young. The male spider, in an attempt not to get eaten while mating, will wrap prey in silk and carry it round until he finds a female; he will then present the wrapped gift to the female and mate while she is eating and distracted. The female will carry an egg sac around with her until the eggs are ready to hatch, when she will build the protective web that gives the spiders their name. She will stay with the young to fend off predators.

Colours vary from light browns to dark brown/grey; it always has the white streak over the head (only the much larger and rarer Raft Spiders look similar).

The female is 12-15mm long and the male 10-13. It often sits with two pairs of front legs forward, looking like a six-legged spider.

The nursery web.