Babies On Her Back

Spotted Wolf Spider (Pardosa amentata) female with spiderlings, rear garden, Staffordshire, England. July 2017.

On The Rocks

Spotted Wolf Spider (Pardosa amentata) female with egg sac, rear garden, Staffordshire, England. July 2017.

I’ve Only Got Eyes For You

It appears this female Spotted Wolf Spider (Pardosa amentata) with an egg sac, was keeping quite a close eye (or should I say ‘eight’ eyes) on me.

---

Please click on an image for a larger more detailed view. Clicking a second time may get you a little closer.

---

Rear garden, Staffordshire, England. June 2017.

Spotted Wolf Spider With Spiderlings

They say a mother’s work is never done, and not only do these spider mums have to carry the eggs around with them, now they have to carry the baby spiders on their backs after hatching! But only until the spiderlings are big enough to fend for themselves.

---

Please click on the images for a larger more detailed view.

---

Spotted Wolf Spider (Pardosa amentata) female with spiderlings, rear garden, Staffordshire, England. June 2017.

Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em

Some mothers just have to do everything. After mating these female Spotted Wolf Spiders (Pardosa amentata) have to lug the eggs around with them attached to the rear of their abdomens. Not only that, once the eggs have hatched they have to carry all those spiderlings around on their backs until they are big enough to fend for themselves.

Please click on the images for a larger more detailed view.

---

Spotted Wolf Spider (Pardosa amentata) females with egg sacs, rear garden, Staffordshire, England. May 2017.

Love Is In The Air … And 1000th Post

Spring is here and so is the need to procreate. This male Spotted Wolf Spider (Pardosa amentata) on a stone on the edge of my garden pond must have thought his luck was in as he was up on his haunches and waving his big palps around in a frenzy at a female just out of shot behind a stone.

I don’t know whether she was impressed with his sexy movin and groovin or not, put off or totally bemused, but she popped her head up for a better look anyway, and …

… and all hell broke loose. There was a jumble of hairy bodies as another male thought it might jump in and spoil the party, which it did, leaving our palp waving friend in the lurch, poor devil.

---

Love is in the air everywhere I look around
Love is in the air every sight and every sound
And I don’t know if I’m being foolish
Don’t know if I’m being wise
But it’s something that I must believe in
And it’s there when I look in your eyes.

Written by George Young and Harry Vanda. Sung by John Paul Young. Released in 1977.

---

Quick edit: Oh … I just realised this is my 1000th post! A big sincere thank you to all my fellow bloggers out there who have supported me on this amazing journey! 🙂 And thank you for sharing all your wonderful and diverse creative work!

The Hunter And The Hunted

Sitting on my small square of decking near my garden pond, just relaxing after being busy in the garden, a small drama began to play out.

There are always many Spotted Wolf Spider (Pardosa amentata) gathered around my pond, resting on the rocks and stones, and hiding in-between them, and what appears amongst them is this female Ichneumon wasp, Ichneumon stramentor. It was directly on the side of the decking  beneath me, and it was moving quite rapidly back and forth across the boarding, its long antennae flickering madly as if in searching for something. The females hunt out moth caterpillars where it will inject them with eggs, the larvae upon hatching will eat the caterpillar from the inside out whilst it is still alive, quite a gruesome way to go. Maybe this was what this wasp was searching for, a host for its young.

But whilst the Ichneumon wasp was preoccupied in its own possible hunt, it was actually being hunted. A Spotted Wolf Spider suddenly appeared but a few centimetres away from beneath the decking, and was observing the wasp, maybe weighing it up. It crept a little closer to it, but appeared quite wary. It observed its potential prey, must have decided it was too big for it to tackle, and the wasp went on its own way.

 

Spotted Wolf Spider

Pardosa amentata

I have a lot of these wolf spiders in my garden, which appear to be centred around my garden pond and raised flowerbed. These are all most likely females featured here.

The males appear darker than the females, and they have large black palps. Their bodies are also covered in dark hairs and dark blotches or spots. Body length females 5.5-8mm, males 5-6.5mm.

Nimble and fast, these wolf spiders hunt their prey on the ground. They feed on small invertebrates.

They mature between spring and autumn. They are often seen quite active in early spring, resting on rocks, logs and vegetation, warming in the sun. The females are seen carrying the white egg sacs under their abdomen, or the spiderlings on their backs. Found in a wide variety of habitats, including grasslands, hedgerows, woodland margins, and gardens. A common and widespread species.

Photographs of Spotted Wolf Spider (Pardosa amentata)taken March 2014, rear garden, Staffordshire. © Pete Hillman 2014. Camera used Nikon D3200, with Sigma 105mm macro lens.

Mobile Spider Nursery

I have quite a few  which reside amongst the rocks and stones around my small garden pond, and I have been observing them with some interest. Today I have seen the eggs the females have been carrying around with them in a sac beneath their abdomens have begun to hatch. Now they carry spiderlings around on their backs. That is what I call true motherly dedication.

Photograph of Spotted Wolf Spider (Pardosa amentata) females, taken June 2016, rear garden , Staffordshire. © Pete Hillman 2016. Camera used Nikon D3200, with Sigma 105mm macro lens.