Nursery Web Spider Eating Flesh Fly

There were more nursery webs, and nursery web spiders (Dolomedes minor), than I have ever seen before in my life! Nursery web spiders are named after their webs, a common sight on gorse and other shrubs. They do not use webs to catch prey, which are in fact nurseries for spiderlings. During summer, female spiders can be seen roaming about carrying their egg sacs in their fangs, until their young are ready to emerge. When this time comes, she takes the egg sac to the top of a tree or shrub and constructs the nursery web. The mother stays close, and can often be found near the base of the plant where she has deposited her young. Once the young spiderlings emerge from the egg sac, they remain there for about a week before dispersing by ballooning.

One of the stelley08 team spotted a flesh fly (which I mistakenly refer to as a "horse fly") landing on a spider (probably a juvenile female - she was fairly small and didn't have a nursery, but it didn't look like a male to me due to the size of her abdomen, however I may be incorrect), and then being caught and called me over. I was just in time for me to see the struggle take place! These spiders actively hunt and scavenge for food at night. The prey spectrum of the spider consists of a variety of small organisms including locusts, other spiders, Dobsonfly larvae, earthworms, bees, flies and other small insects. They can be found throughout New Zealand, to which they are endemic.

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