Striped Fishing Spider - Who knew?

 

The striped fishing spider is common throughout much of North America.  Males have a white stripe flanking their cephalothorax (front half of spider) as you can see in the above photo.  They are relatively large spiders; when fully grown they can stretch across your palm when their legs are fully extended.  Females are slightly bigger than males.

It is somewhat amazing that something so large can sit on the water's surface without submerging.  Water has a very strong surface tension which is why you can make a paperclip float (if done right - it's a bit tricky) and you can overfill a cup without the water spilling.  The spider can choose to stay on top of the water, but also has the ability to break surface tension and submerge.

The spider's legs have long hairs sensitive to vibrations.  They don't have to see their prey to know something is there.  Although they don't hunt with webs as most spiders do, if they sense that something lies underneath them they can dive and use legs and jaws to capture and dispatch their meal.  

Hydrophobic hairs on their abdomen allow them to trap air that they bring with them when hunting underwater.  All spiders breathe using a book-lung; the fishing spider extracts oxygen from the silvery bubble they bring with them.  They have been known to stay under water for up to half an hour.

Fishing spiders are also terrestrial; they will occasionally venture onto land to hunt.  In this manner, they are like wolf spiders.  However, they lay their eggs on water and the female protects her young until they hatch and disperse.

I found an excellent video on the spider; you can see it here.

Thanks for reading.   www.ericspix.com