Nursery Web Spider

The nursery web spider, Pisaura mirabilis, also called the cunning spider or bridal gift spider, is a European hunting spider of the family Pisauridae that was named Spider of the Year in 2002 by the Arachnological Society. It has long legs, longest in the fourth pair, and a slender tapering abdomen, with males 10 to 13 millimeters long and females slightly larger at 12 to 15 millimeters, both colored from light or reddish brown to gray or black with a lighter central stripe. It ranges across Europe, including the Canary Islands and Madeira, into Asian Russia, China, and North Africa, living from ground level to treetops in damp meadows, moors, salt marshes, and forest edges up to 1,100 meters elevation. Males offer females a silk-wrapped prey gift before mating and feign death while holding it, a display that raises their chance of successfully mating from under 30 percent to 89 percent.