Nursery web spider
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 don't use webs for catching prey. 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. The name "nursery web spider" is especially given to the European species Pisaura mirabilis, but this family also includes fishing spiders and raft spiders. Adult female specimens may reach up to 15mm in length, excluding legs. The legs of the male are longer in relation to body size than those of the female. The female spider sometimes attempts to eat the male after mating. The male, to reduce the