Venomless - _TNY_3423 (In Explore 13/3 2024)
The feather-legged lace weaver (Uloborus plumipes) is quite the special spider in that it (like all members of the Uloboridae family) lacks venom.
There are over 45,000 species of spiders in the world and the just 80 species in Uloboridae are the only ones without venom glands.
There is an alternative English name which describes pretty well where you can find these: the garden center spider. This as the species can't handle the Swedish (or even the British) outdoor climate so it is as the name suggests mostly found in garden centers and other places which import flowers from warmer climates.
I found this particular one at the Haga Ocean butterfly house - a location which fits its climate and humidity requirements to a tee,
It's a small species, around just 6 mm / .2" so my camera setup which was chosen to shoot butterflies twenty-five times larger wasn't ideal so this is as close as I can get.
The Swedish name "knätofsspindel" is kinda funny. The literal translation is "knee tassel spider" because of the brushes of hair they have on their front pair of legs. There are traditional Swedish regional costumes of old which utilize knee tassels so I presume that is where the name comes from.
This is my first shot of U. plumipes, but I have shot the other Uloboridae species found in Sweden on several occasions. Here is one of my shots of the triangle spider (Hyptiotes paradoxus): www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/38815196161/
Venomless - _TNY_3423 (In Explore 13/3 2024)
The feather-legged lace weaver (Uloborus plumipes) is quite the special spider in that it (like all members of the Uloboridae family) lacks venom.
There are over 45,000 species of spiders in the world and the just 80 species in Uloboridae are the only ones without venom glands.
There is an alternative English name which describes pretty well where you can find these: the garden center spider. This as the species can't handle the Swedish (or even the British) outdoor climate so it is as the name suggests mostly found in garden centers and other places which import flowers from warmer climates.
I found this particular one at the Haga Ocean butterfly house - a location which fits its climate and humidity requirements to a tee,
It's a small species, around just 6 mm / .2" so my camera setup which was chosen to shoot butterflies twenty-five times larger wasn't ideal so this is as close as I can get.
The Swedish name "knätofsspindel" is kinda funny. The literal translation is "knee tassel spider" because of the brushes of hair they have on their front pair of legs. There are traditional Swedish regional costumes of old which utilize knee tassels so I presume that is where the name comes from.
This is my first shot of U. plumipes, but I have shot the other Uloboridae species found in Sweden on several occasions. Here is one of my shots of the triangle spider (Hyptiotes paradoxus): www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/38815196161/