Six-Spotted Fishing Spider (Family Pisauridae)

Hi, BugFans,

This beautiful spider (probably Dolomedes triton) was photographed at Riveredge Nature Center’s vernal pond. A spider of ponds and slow-moving streams east of the Great Plains, this gal (Mr. Fishing Spider is considerably smaller and has a slimmer abdomen) stalks around on the duckweed, alga, Riccia (an aquatic liverwort) and even the surface film of the water. It eats aquatic insects and, occasionally, tadpoles and tiny fish. It is itself, fish food.

Fishing Spiders are Nursery web spiders (family Pisauridae), and they are often mistaken for wolf spiders. They use web to enclose their egg cases, but not to catch their prey. The female will carry her egg case around and will stay with it until the spiderlings have hatched and dispersed.

Some fishing spiders dive under water, their bodies coated with a film of air bubbles, and they can stay there for a long time. There are about a dozen species north of the Rio Grande; this body of this one was about an inch long. Its name does not come from the 12 white spots on its abdomen, but from the six black spots found at the base of the legs.

The BugLady

About the BugLady

The BugLady (aka Kate Redmond) is an Environmental Educator who has been having “close encounters” with insects all her life. She has worked and/or volunteered at Lac Lawrann Conservancy in West Bend, the Mequon Nature Preserve, and Riveredge Nature Center near Newburg and spoken at other area Nature Centers. At Riveredge, she has had the wonderful assignment of being the “sturgeon paparazza” at their annual sturgeon release. She leads field trips in the Cedarburg Bog, is a founding member of the Friends of the Cedarburg Bog, and is a current Board member of the Lake Michigan Bird Observatory. When she’s not appreciating insects, she’s enjoying prairies and wetlands.

Her 40 year addiction to photography is (almost) her only vice. She's gone through a number of cameras in the last 40 years, and now she packs a Pentax K-70 with a 70 mm macro lens.

The BugLady is a Wisconsin native, presently living in Sheboygan County. Most of the photos in Bug of the Week were taken in southeastern Wisconsin. Her Mission Statement is “Less stepping on bugs.”