Nursery Web Spider
Nursery Web spiders - (Pisaurina sp. Family Pisauridae) - These spiders resemble the wolf spiders (Lycosidae), but have a different eye pattern. Pisaurids have their eyes arranged in 2 rows, the posterior row slightly recurved, the median eyes in the second row slighly (if any) larger than the others. (Wolf spiders have eyes arranged in 3 rows). The egg sac is carried by the female under her prosoma, held there by her chelicerae pedipalps. Before the eggs hatch, the female attaches the sac to a plant and then builds a web around it -- and stands guard nearby. The Pisaurids forage for their food and build webs only for protecting their young. They are related to fishing spiders being members of the Dolomedes family and have been known to walk on water in search of prey.
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