Nursery web spiders (Pisauridae) are a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Eugène Simon in 1890. Females of the family are known for building special nursery webs. When their eggs are about to hatch, a female spider builds a tent-like web, places her egg sac inside, and stands guard outside, hence the family's common name. Like wolf spiders, however, nursery web spiders are roaming hunters that do not use webs for catching prey.

The name "nursery web spider" is especially given to the European species Pisaura mirabilis. Adult female specimens may reach up to 15 mm in length, excluding legs. The legs of the male are longer in relation to body size than those of the female.

Distribution Species occur throughout the world except for extremely dry or cold environments, and are common just about everywhere. Many can walk on the surface of still bodies of water and may even dive beneath the surface temporarily to escape enemies. They can jump a distance of , but they have trouble climbing extremely smooth surfaces such as glass.

Behavior The female spider sometimes attempts to eat the male after mating. The male, to reduce the risk of this, often presents the female with a gift such as a fly when approaching in the hope that this will satisfy her hunger. Sometimes, this gift is a fake present intended to fool the female. Males may wrap the fake gift in silk, to deceive the female to mate. Females can detect the fake gift and terminate mating, negating the male's deception in not giving a real gift.

Description

Nursery web spiders resemble wolf spiders (Lycosidae) except for some key differences. The posterior lateral eyes of wolf spiders are relatively far back and point sideways. In nursery web spiders, the posterior lateral eyes are closer to the posterior median eyes. Also, female nursery web spiders carry their egg sacs with their chelicerae instead of attaching them to their spinnerets as wolf spiders do.

Genera

, this family includes 45 genera and 235 species:

Afropisaura Blandin, 1976 – Africa Archipirata Simon, 1898 – Turkmenistan, China Architis Simon, 1898 – South America, Trinidad, Panama Blandinia Tonini, Silva, Filho & Freitas, 2016 – Madagascar Caripetella Strand, 1928 – Madagascar, Comoros Charminus Thorell, 1899 – Africa Chiasmopes Pavesi, 1883 – Ethiopia, Namibia, South Africa Cispinilus Roewer, 1955 – Central Africa Cispius Simon, 1898 – South Africa, Congo Cladycnis Simon, 1898 – Canary Islands Conakrya Schmidt, 1956 – Guinea Dendrolycosa Doleschall, 1859 – Asia, Africa, Oceania Eucamptopus Pocock, 1900 – India Euprosthenops Pocock, 1897 – Africa, India Euprosthenopsis Blandin, 1974 – Africa Hala Jocqué, 1994 – Madagascar Hygropoda Thorell, 1895 – Africa, Asia, Australia Ilipula Simon, 1903 – Vietnam Inola Davies, 1982 – Australia Maypacius Simon, 1898 – Africa Nilus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1876 – Asia, Africa Papakula Strand, 1911 – Indonesia Paracladycnis Blandin, 1979 – Madagascar Perenethis L. Koch, 1878 – Asia, Comoros, Oceania Phalaeops Roewer, 1955 – Mozambique, Djibouti Pisaura Simon, 1886 – Asia Pisaurina Simon, 1898 – United States, Canada, Cuba Polyboea Thorell, 1895 – Asia Qianlingula Zhang, Zhu & Song, 2004 – China Rothus Simon, 1898 – Israel, South Africa Sphedanus Thorell, 1877 – Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia Stoliczka O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1885 – Pakistan Tallonia Simon, 1889 – Madagascar Tapinothele Simon, 1898 – Tanzania Tapinothelella Strand, 1909 – South Africa Tapinothelops Roewer, 1955 – Ethiopia Tetragonophthalma Karsch, 1878 – West, Central Africa Thalassiopsis Roewer, 1955 – Madagascar Thaumasia Perty, 1833 – Central America, South America, Mexico Tinus F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1901 – India, Cuba, North America, Central America Tolma Jocqué, 1994 – Madagascar Voraptipus Roewer, 1955 – Mozambique Voraptus Simon, 1898 – Africa, Indonesia, Seychelles Vuattouxia Blandin, 1979 – Côte d'Ivoire Walrencea Blandin, 1979 – South Africa

Some fossilized spiders have also been assigned to this family: †Eopisaurella Petrunkevitch, 1958 (Early Eocene; Baltic amber) †Palaeoperenethis Seldon & Penney, 2009 (Ypresian, British Columbia, Canada) †Esuritor Petrunkevitch, 1942 (Eocene; Baltic amber)Wunderlich, J. NEW AND RARE SPIDERS (ARANEAE) IN EOCENE BALTIC AMBER. In Jörg Wunderlich (ed.). Five Papers on Extant Spiders (Araneida) as well as on Fossil Spiders and Ricinulei. Beitraege zur Araneologie. Vol. 15. Jörg Wunderlich. pp. 79.

References

Male Spiders Scam Females with Gift-Wrapped Garbage

External links