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adult female Dolomedes © Helen Smith
adult D. plantarius eating a spider, eating a damselfly!



adult female Dolomedes © Helen Smith
adult D. plantarius




© Helen Smith
pregnant female D. plantarius



Immature Dolomedes plantarius © David Hosking © David Hoskin
Juvenile D. plantarius in its second year



© Paul Jones
first year juvenile D. plantarius



© Paul Jones
female D. plantarius carrying her egg sac


Dolomedes nursery web © Helen Smith
a typical D. plantarius nursery web at Redgrave and Lopham Fen, located in Cladium mariscus, high above the water at the margin of a peat pool







female D. plantarius guarding her nursery: strands of the web extend beyond the edges of this picture

Spider pool on Little Fen, South Lopham © Helen Smith
At Redgrave and Lopham Fen D. plantarius is confined to deep pools left by peat-digging in the 19th and early 20th Centuries


Cut sedge around spider pool © Helen Smith
dense beds of saw-sedge Cladium mariscus surrounding the pools are mown on a traditional 4-year rotation. Clumps at the pool margins are left uncut as refuges for the spiders.


D plantarius habitat at Pevensey © Arthur Rivett
Typical Dolomedes plantarius habitat on the Pevensey Levels grazing marshes in Sussex. The spiders live amongst the marginal emergent vegetation. The floating rosettes of water soldier Stratiotes aloides are favoured for nursery web construction.



the Tennant Canal next to Pant-y-Sais NNR, home to Dolomedes plantarius in South Wales.



Pirata hygrophilus: the Pirata species are easily confused with Dolomedes plantarius and D. fimbriatus



© Neal Pearson
a particularly boldly marked Pirata (possibly P. piraticus)



Females in the genus Pirata carry their young on their backs



Females in the genus Pirata carry their egg sacs at back of their bodies, held in their spinners



Pisuara mirablis is the only other British spider in the same family as Dolomedes plantarius and D. fimbriatus. This common grassland species also builds and guards nursery webs. A ball of spiderlings can be seen in front of the empty egg sac at the top left hand corner of this web.


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