Nursery web spider
Pisaura mirabilis
— Where the name comes from
Mirabilis is Latin, “wonderful, worthy of astonishment”, and it is one of the rare epithets that openly express the describer’s surprise rather than describing anything. What astonished him is not recorded, but there is no shortage of candidates: the wrapped nuptial gift, the silk tent for the young, or the male’s feigned death during courtship.
— Facts
- Group
- Arachnids · Arachnida
- Order
- Spiders
- Habitat
- Tall grass, bushes, grassy clearings
- Range
- Europe, North Africa, western Asia
- Size
- 10–15 mm
- Diet
- Insects taken from ambush, without a web
- Lifespan
- 1–2 years
— Characteristics
- 01
The male offers the female a prey item wrapped in silk.
- 02
The mother carries the egg sac in her jaws, and does not eat for days.
- 03
She builds a silk tent for the young and guards it from outside.
— What sets it apart
The male courts with a parcel and, if need be, by playing dead. He catches an insect, wraps it in white silk and offers it: while she eats, he mates — and the bigger the gift, the more time he has. Some cheat, wrapping a dried husk or a piece of wood. If, having taken the gift, the female tries to leave or to attack him, the male stiffens and lets himself be dragged along inert while keeping hold of the present, then “revives” when she settles down to eat. It is one of very few documented cases of thanatosis used in courtship rather than defence.
