All"s Fair in Love and War with the Nursery Web Spider

If you have been a fan here at FQTQ for a bit, you may know that we like to cover spiders quite often. From the order Araneae, spiders are truly amazing creatures that never fail to captivate our imaginations (and in some cases nightmares). In relation to species diversity, they are the ranked 7th out of all organisms that inhabit the Earth. And they can be tenacious; they have colonized and made their homes on every continent, with the exception of Antarctica.

Of course, they are rather small (comparatively), but what spiders lack in size, they make up for with character. In fact, they have a number of specialized traits that make learning about them truly fascinating. While many spiders are capable of causing harm to humans, we discuss them not to incite fear, but in an effort to reduce anxiety and to combat the stigma that has cloaked these creatures in a veil of obscurity. Often, what we really fear is the unknown, and if we know what spiders are really like, perhaps we will be less frightened and more inquisitive.

Additionally, when people start replacing their fear with knowledge and wonder, then conservation and preservation becomes more of a priority. Today, I would like to cover a rather interesting spider that exhibits a precarious mating ritual--a battle of intellectual prowess and deceit that can leave one member dead. Today, we discuss the Pisaura mirabilis, or better known as the Nursery Web spider.

Read all about these fascinating creatures at:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/alls-fair-in-love-and-war-with-the-nursery-web-spider/

Image source:
http://www.mattcolephotography.co.uk/Galleries/insects/Spiders,%20Ants%20&%20Misc/slides/Nursery%20Web%20Spider%20with%20egg%20sac%201.html