Pisaura mirabilis

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Nursery web spider
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Family: Pisauridae
Genus: Pisaura
Species: P. mirabilis
Binomial name
Pisaura mirabilis
(Clerck, 1757)

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%.[1] This is an example of a behavior originally evolved to ward off predators being adapted to a new purpose.[1]

Description

The male is between 10–13 mm, while the female is 12–15 mm.[2]

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, 1988 (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)
Pisaura mirabilis
  • Rainar Nitzsche: Brautgeschenke bei Spinnen - die heimische Pisaura mirabilis (CLERCK, 1757) und ihre Verwandten, die Kinderstubennetzspinnen (Pisauridae). Arachne 13 (1): 11-29, 2008
  • Rainar Nitzsche: Courtship, mating and agonistic behaviour in Pisaura mirabilis (CLERCK, 1757). Bull. Br. arachnol. Soc. 15 (4): 93-120, 2011

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Spiders play dead to get laid". New Scientist magazine (2645). February 27, 2008. p. 19 
  2. ↑ "Pisaura mirabilis". Retrieved 2009-02-10. 

External links

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See also

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