A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Philoponella congregabilis
A small spider hanging in a tangled web of nearly invisible silk looking very much like a piece of debris. When disturbed its legs shot out exposing a humped abdomen with small tubercles. The spider was a mottled grey,brown and white perfectly mimicking a small piece of dried leaf or dirt.
Spotted in a small plastic tub in the garden.
A very interesting spider which does not use venom to kill its prey. Instead it crushes its prey with massive amounts of silk - one species is said to use 140 mts of webbing. It then pours out digestive juices into the shroud and then consumes the digested liquid prey.
The generic name means " loving labour" and specific name "community dwelling" .
More interesting information:
http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience...
http://www.cirrusimage.com/Arachnid_feat...
Family: Uloboridae
Thanks to Mark Ridgway ( my husband) for helping with the ID.
Spotted on Nov 17, 2016
Submitted on Nov 19, 2016
2 Comments
You're welcome Daniele. I've added another link which has some more interesting information. They are fascinating.
Very interesting notes Leuba! Thanks.