Special guest appearance by a Trapa natans nutlet

Spiders aren't for everyone and anything larger than a bathroom spider might be a little too horror film for some, but six spotted fishing spiders (Dolomedes triton) are actually relatively docile and won't bite unless they're provoked. Members of the nursery web family, they are similar in size, appearance, and behavior to nursery web spiders you might find in meadows.  True to their name, fishing spiders do fish. They're capable of diving and swimming underwater, and actively hunt their prey rather than spinning a web to catch it.  They can scurry along the surface of the water and can even jump straight up to escape predators, if they need to!

Like their terrestrial cousins, female fishing spiders carry the egg sac in her palps until the eggs are ready to hatch. When they're ready, she spins a special nursery web, often on floating aquatic vegetation, and stays nearby her babies until the spiderlings have all hatched and are ready to disperse on their own.

We found A LOT of adult and baby six spotted nursery web spiders on Carding Mill Pond. Intimidating at first, by the time the Mass Audubon crew moved on to their next work site they had grown accustomed to sharing their boats with these eight-legged friends and were, dare we say, even fond of them?

How could you not love this face?!

 

Looks like our spider mama has her eggs now! Too bad for her, we don't want her or her spiderlings around our beetles and larvae. So off into the woods she goes.

Nursery web spiders can appear to be pretty horrifying if you don't like spiders. They're quick, agile, and can even walk on and dive under calm water. And they're big. 

Fortunately, they're of little threat to humans and will not bite unless provoked and aggravated.  They get their name from the female's behavior of carrying her egg mass in her jaw and building a web tent in which the eggs can hatch. She evens stays around until the last spiderling has hatched. How sweet!