A spider with her crochet work
Thanks for your visit. Comments, faves and invitations that you may leave are very appreciated.
A female rufous net-casting or ogre-faced spider, Deinopis subrufa. This spider is native to eastern Australia including Tasmania. The body is about 2.5 cm (1 inch) long. Another photo below. They are harmless. Lots more information below too.
Net-casting spiders have 8 eyes. Six are small but 2 are enlarged. These large red eyes provide outstanding low-light night vision. Their compound lenses have an F number of 0.58 which means they can concentrate available light more efficiently than a cat (F 0.9) or an owl (F 1.1). The image is focussed onto a large, light-receptive retinal membrane (which is destroyed at dawn and renewed again each night).
Net-casting spiders have a unique prey-catching method. At night, they build a rectangular, postage-stamp-sized web, made with wool-like, entangling silk threads. These little nets are made among low vegetation, usually above a surface across which prey animals are likely to walk (e.g. a broad leaf , a tree trunk or even a house wall). The spider hangs head down from a trapeze of silk, holding the net in its front pairs of legs; and there it waits, its enormous eyes watching for prey movement. When an insect passes over spots on the web, the spider opens the stretchy web to two or three times its resting size and lunges it downward over the unsuspecting prey. The clinging silk net envelopes the insect, which is then rapidly bitten and wrapped. While eating its catch, the spider may start making a new net for its next meal. Prey animals include cockroaches, ants, spiders and even moths - net-casters seem sensitive to air currents and will lunge the net towards aerial prey. Prey as large as male trapdoor spiders and gryllacridid wood crickets are taken. - See more at: australianmuseum.net.au/rufous-net-casting-spider
f/32 1/160 ISO 1000 100mm Pentax f/2.8 Pentax K-5 flash fired.
A spider with her crochet work
Thanks for your visit. Comments, faves and invitations that you may leave are very appreciated.
A female rufous net-casting or ogre-faced spider, Deinopis subrufa. This spider is native to eastern Australia including Tasmania. The body is about 2.5 cm (1 inch) long. Another photo below. They are harmless. Lots more information below too.
Net-casting spiders have 8 eyes. Six are small but 2 are enlarged. These large red eyes provide outstanding low-light night vision. Their compound lenses have an F number of 0.58 which means they can concentrate available light more efficiently than a cat (F 0.9) or an owl (F 1.1). The image is focussed onto a large, light-receptive retinal membrane (which is destroyed at dawn and renewed again each night).
Net-casting spiders have a unique prey-catching method. At night, they build a rectangular, postage-stamp-sized web, made with wool-like, entangling silk threads. These little nets are made among low vegetation, usually above a surface across which prey animals are likely to walk (e.g. a broad leaf , a tree trunk or even a house wall). The spider hangs head down from a trapeze of silk, holding the net in its front pairs of legs; and there it waits, its enormous eyes watching for prey movement. When an insect passes over spots on the web, the spider opens the stretchy web to two or three times its resting size and lunges it downward over the unsuspecting prey. The clinging silk net envelopes the insect, which is then rapidly bitten and wrapped. While eating its catch, the spider may start making a new net for its next meal. Prey animals include cockroaches, ants, spiders and even moths - net-casters seem sensitive to air currents and will lunge the net towards aerial prey. Prey as large as male trapdoor spiders and gryllacridid wood crickets are taken. - See more at: australianmuseum.net.au/rufous-net-casting-spider
f/32 1/160 ISO 1000 100mm Pentax f/2.8 Pentax K-5 flash fired.