Dolomedes raptor is a large fishing spider of East Asian streams, found in Korea, Japan, China, and the Russian Far East; it does not live in the United States. Like its North American cousins, it spins no web, waits at the water's edge for insects and small fish, and can stand on the surface or dive under to escape.
Appearance
- Appearance
- A large spider: adult females reach about 1¼ in (3 cm) in length and are dark overall. Males are much smaller and have bold white bands of hair on the front body section.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- mountain streams
- stream banks
- Range
- Russian Far East, China, Korea, and Japan. It is not found in the United States, where other fishing spiders in the same genus live instead.
Behavior
- Diet
- Aquatic and streamside insects, plus small fish.
- Activity
- Mostly active at night. Sits and waits on stream banks instead of building a capture web. Fine water-repellent hairs let it stand on the water briefly or dive below the surface.
- Social life
- Females have white hair patches on their legs that may help lure prey, and they tend to reject or even attack males that lack the white stripes.
Life cycle
- Nest
- The mother builds a for her spiderlings and stays nearby.
- Time to maturity
- Males can mature in about a year; females may take about two years longer.
Name and classification
- About the name
- Fishing spiders have traditionally been placed in the nursery web spider family (Pisauridae), but after a 2024 genetic study, current classification moves them to their own family, Dolomedidae.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
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