Pisaura mirabilis
Encyclopedia
The nursery web spider
Pisaura mirabilis is a spider
species
of the family Pisauridae.
Males of this species offer food gifts to potential female mates. Some Pisaura mirabilis have also been observed to feign death, remaining still while holding the food gift in their mouths. When the female approaches and tries to take the food away, the male springs back to life and attempts to mate. The strategy of playing dead more than doubles a male's odds of successfully achieving copulation, from 40% to 89%. This is an example of a behavior originally evolved to ward off predators being adapted to a new purpose.
Nursery web spider
Nursery web spiders are spiders of the family Pisauridae. They resemble wolf spiders , but they carry their egg sacs by means of their jaws and pedipalps . When the eggs are about to hatch, a mother spider will build a nursery "tent," put her egg sac inside, and mount guard outside...
Pisaura mirabilis is a spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of the family Pisauridae.
Males of this species offer food gifts to potential female mates. Some Pisaura mirabilis have also been observed to feign death, remaining still while holding the food gift in their mouths. When the female approaches and tries to take the food away, the male springs back to life and attempts to mate. The strategy of playing dead more than doubles a male's odds of successfully achieving copulation, from 40% to 89%. This is an example of a behavior originally evolved to ward off predators being adapted to a new purpose.
Further reading
- P. M. Brignoli: A Catalogue of the Aranea described between 1940 and 1981. Manchester Univ. Press, 1983
- C. D. Dondale, R. Legendre: Winter diapause in a Mediterranean population of Pisaura mirabilis (Clerck). Bull. Br. Arach. Soc. 2
- A. Lang: Silk investment in gifts by males of the nuptial feeding spider Pisaura mirabilis (Araneae, Pisauridae). Behaviour 133, 1996
- A. Lang: A note on body size parameters and some life data of Pisaura mirabilis (Araneae, Pisauridae). Proc. XV. Eur. Coll. Arachnol. 111-115, 1995
- A. Lang, C. Klarenberg: Experiments on the foraging behaviour of the hunting spider Pisaura mirabilis (Araneae, Pisauridae): Utilisation of single prey items. Eur. J. Ent. 94, 1997
- R. Nitzsche: "Brautgeschenk" und Umspinnen der Beute bei Pisaura mirabilis, Dolomedes fimbriatus und Thaumasia uncata (Arachnida, Araneida, Pisauridae). Verh. naturwiss. Ver. Hamburg (NF) 30: 353-393 (with an English summary)
- R. Nitzsche: Beutefang und Brautgeschenk bei der Raubspinne Pisaura mirabilis (CL.)(Aranea, Pisauridae). Reprint der Diplomarbeit von 1981. Rainar Nitzsche Verlag, Kaiserslautern, 2006, ISBN 978-3-930304-73-8
- R. Nitzsche: Brautgeschenk und Reproduktion bei Pisaura mirabilis, einschließlich vergleichender Untersuchungen an Dolomedes fimbriatus und Thaumasia uncata (Araneida, Pisauridae). Reprint der Dissertation von 1987 (Thesis). Rainar Nitzsche Verlag, Kaiserslautern, 2006, ISBN 978-3-930304-74-5
- R. Nitzsche: Die Spinne mit dem Brautgeschenk Pisaura mirabilis (CLERCK, 1757) und das Paarungsverhalten verwandter Arten der Familie Pisauridae. 2. aktualisierte Auflage von: Das Brautgeschenk der Spinne. Rainar Nitzsche Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-930304-62-2 (the world's sole monograph written in German, a publishing house for an English edition is searched)