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Net-casting spider

Deinopis sp.

Description:

The spider family Deinopidae consists of stick-like elongate spiders that build unusual webs that they suspend between the front legs. When prey approaches, the spider will stretch the net to two or three times its relaxed size and propel itself onto the prey, entangling it in the web. Because of this, they are also called net-casting spiders. Their excellent night-vision adapted posterior median eyes allow them to cast this net over potential prey items. These eyes are so large in comparison to the other six eyes that the spider seems to have only two eyes. The genus Deinopis is the best known in this family. Spiders in this genus are also called ogre-faced spiders, due to the imagined similarity between their appearance and that of the mythological creature, the ogre. It is distributed nearly worldwide in the tropics, from Australia to Africa and the Americas. In Florida, Deinopis often hangs upside-down from a silk line under palmetto fronds during the day. It emerges at night to practice its unusual prey capture method on invertebrate prey. (Wikipedia)

Notes:

Class Arachnida, Order Araneae, Suborder Araneomorphae, Superfamily Uloboroidea, Family Deinopidae,

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5 Comments

LuisStevens
LuisStevens 9 years ago

Great series Sergio!

armadeus.4
armadeus.4 9 years ago

Incredible series Sergio! Thank you for sharing :)

Sergio Monteiro
Sergio Monteiro 9 years ago

Mark, its body was around 1 cm long, so the legs should be 5 cm long, given or taken a cm.

AlbertKang
AlbertKang 9 years ago

Saw quite a few of them in Philippines at various locations.
They were mostly around 5-6 cm, including legs span.
Its cool to see them in action catching their preys.

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 9 years ago

Great Sergio. What size was this one? We have some small ones and then some huge ones (including leg span)

Sergio Monteiro
Spotted by
Sergio Monteiro

Curitiba, PR, Brazil

Spotted on Jun 24, 2014
Submitted on Jun 24, 2014

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