White Stripes - _TNY_3032
Juvenile raft spiders (Dolomedes fimbriatus) are a common sight in my mother-in-law's garden in the summer. It's a great species th shoot as this is a very large species (one of the two largest in Sweden) so even though the ones I find are juveniles (as evidenced by the greenish legs), they are still large enough to make good subjects.
This particular one was doing its best to hide down between the not yet opened buds of a flower.
The Dolomedes species belong to the family Pisauridae which much like wolf spiders don't build a web, but rather hunt on the move which means the female has to carry the egg sac around. When the eggs are about to hatch, she builds a nursery web and stay in it to guard the spiderlings. In English, the spider Pisaura mirabilis is known as the nursery web spider, but in Swedish we use that name for the entire family of Pisauridae as they all build nursery webs.
White Stripes - _TNY_3032
Juvenile raft spiders (Dolomedes fimbriatus) are a common sight in my mother-in-law's garden in the summer. It's a great species th shoot as this is a very large species (one of the two largest in Sweden) so even though the ones I find are juveniles (as evidenced by the greenish legs), they are still large enough to make good subjects.
This particular one was doing its best to hide down between the not yet opened buds of a flower.
The Dolomedes species belong to the family Pisauridae which much like wolf spiders don't build a web, but rather hunt on the move which means the female has to carry the egg sac around. When the eggs are about to hatch, she builds a nursery web and stay in it to guard the spiderlings. In English, the spider Pisaura mirabilis is known as the nursery web spider, but in Swedish we use that name for the entire family of Pisauridae as they all build nursery webs.