Miagrammopes species

Fact Box Species: Miagrammopes species (RM) (very similar to M. bradleyi) Family: Uloboridae Body length: female: about 12 mm male: about 8 mm Habitat: This species does not build a web but is suspended on a single strand of silk or lies along twigs or stands of grass that match it in colour, making it almost impossible to see unless it moves Toxicity: This species may be too small and non-aggressive to harm a human

Underneath female Immature male Underneath male Male from front Spider size Female and egg sac Eyes, trichobothria Used silk

The first pair of legs are very much larger and longer than the others and when the spider is at rest all pairs of legs are pressed together or against the sides of the spider. This arrangement can be so tight that the palps of the male tend to project out to the sides.

There is a distinctive brush on the underside of at least the first pair of legs but this is not a scopula or claw tuft as is found on some other kinds of spiders.

Other diagnostically important features of this Miagrammopes species are the presence of only a single row of 4 eyes running across the front of the spider, rows of vertically standing fine hairs called trichobothria on the middle pairs of legs, and the production of an egg sac that is a very long, pale brown cylinder.

This spider has an unusual way of catching insects. It produces a single tight strand of silk that it releases whenever an insect touches the strand, the insect then becoming entangled as the strand springs back into a loose ball.

Spider(s) with a very similar appearance: Miagrammopes species.