Pisaurina brevipes

Pisaurina brevipes
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Pisauridae
Genus:	Pisaurina
Species:	P. brevipes
Binomial name
Pisaurina brevipes (Emerton, 1911)[1]

Pisaurina brevipes is a species of "nursery web spider" that is found in the eastern half of the North American continent, from Ontario down to Florida and west to Kansas.^[2] These spiders are distinguished from the rather similar Pisaurina mira spiders by having relatively shorter legs. The ratio of leg length I to cephalothorax length is less than 2.0 in males and less than 1.4 in females, whereas for P. mira the leg length I is more than 2.0 in males and more than 1.4 in females.^[3] The edges of the abdominal band are more straight edged than in P. mira. The natural history of this species is not well known. The only records known to Carico seem to indicate that they favor grasslands, bogs, and swamps. These spiders rear their young in nurseries, which are bell-like structures of spider web laid out in a sheet form. These spiders are difficult to distinguish from P. mira, unless the pedipalps of the males are examined.^[4] The reason is that their coloration patterns fall within the natural range of variation of the more numerous P. mira spiders.^[5]

The females of P. brevipes have a body length of 11 to 13 mm, and the males are about 10.8 mm.^[6]

References