Pisaura mirabilis

Taxobox
name = Nursery web spider

---

image_caption =
image_width = 250px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Arachnida
ordo = Araneae
familia = Pisauridae
genus = "Pisaura"
species = "P. mirabilis"
binomial = "Pisaura mirabilis"
binomial_authority = Clerck, 1757

The nursery web spider "Pisaura mirabilis" is a spider species of the family Pisauridae.

Males of this species offer food gifts to potential female mates. Some "Pisaura mirabilis" have also been observed to feign death, remaining still while holding the food gift in their mouths. When the female approaches and tries to take the food away, the male springs back to life and attempts to mate. This act of playing dead gives the males over a 40% success increase of achieving copulation. [Citation | title=Spiders play dead to get laid | newspaper=New Scientist magazine | issue=2645 | pages=19 | year=2008 | date=February 27 | url=http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19726454.800 ]

Further reading

*P. M. Brignoli: A Catalogue of the Aranea described between 1940 and 1981. "Manchester Univ. Press", 1983
*C. D. Dondale, R. Legendre: "Winter diapause in a Mediterranean population of "Pisaura mirabilis" (Clerck). "Bull. Br. Arach. Soc." 2
*A. Lang: Silk investment in gifts by males of the nuptial feeding spider "Pisaura mirabilis" (Araneae, Pisauridae). "Behaviour 133", 1996
*A. Lang: A note on body size parameters and some life data of "Pisaura mirabilis" (Araneae, Pisauridae). "Proc. XV. Eur. Coll. Arachnol." 111-115, 1995
*A. Lang, C. Klarenberg: Experiments on the foraging behaviour of the hunting spider "Pisaura mirabilis" (Araneae, Pisauridae): Utilisation of single prey items. "Eur. J. Ent." 94, 1997
*R. Nitzsche: "Brautgeschenk" und Umspinnen der Beute bei Pisaura mirabilis, Dolomedes fimbriatus und Thaumasia uncata (Arachnida, Araneida, Pisauridae). "Verh. naturwiss. Ver. Hamburg (NF)" 30: 353-393 (with an English summary)
*R. Nitzsche: Beutefang und Brautgeschenk bei der Raubspinne Pisaura mirabilis (CL.)(Aranea, Pisauridae). Reprint der Diplomarbeit von 1981. Rainar Nitzsche Verlag, Kaiserslautern, 2006, ISBN 978-3-930304-73-8
*R. Nitzsche: Brautgeschenk und Reproduktion bei Pisaura mirabilis, einschließlich vergleichender Untersuchungen an Dolomedes fimbriatus und Thaumasia uncata (Araneida, Pisauridae). Reprint der Dissertation von 1987 (Thesis). Rainar Nitzsche Verlag, Kaiserslautern, 2006, ISBN 978-3-930304-74-5
*R. Nitzsche: Die Spinne mit dem Brautgeschenk Pisaura mirabilis (CLERCK, 1757) und das Paarungsverhalten verwandter Arten der Familie Pisauridae. 2. aktualisierte Auflage von: Das Brautgeschenk der Spinne. Rainar Nitzsche Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-930304-62-2 (the world's sole monograph written in German, a publishing house for an English edition is searched)

References

External links

* [http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/PISAURIDAE.html Platnick: The World Spider Catalog - Pisauridae]
* [http://www.nitzscheverlag.homepage.t-online.de/brautgeschenk.htm Nitzsche: Die Spinne mit dem Brautgeschenk Pisaura mirabilis monograph, dissertation and thesis, written in German]

ee also

* List of Pisauridae species
* Spider families