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Hi Jet,

The second spider (#143) is a Nursery Web Spider (Cispius)
Cispius actively pursue prey, often using its leaping powers to jump onto its prey. These spiders are typically marked with lateral bands at least on the carapace and have numerous spines on the long legs to aid with prey capture. They are called Nursery web spiders because the female builds an egg sac that she carries with her. It protects the eggs, and keeps the spiderlings captive until time to release them.

Hi DaleL'
I hope someone replied to your ID query of March 4th because your spider look s to me very like a VIOLIN SPIDER which has a cytotoxic venom and definitely needs to be avoided. Only thing against my ID is size, they are usually somewhat bigger - body +/- 10m/m and overall width up to 40m/m. Otherwise the markings look very Violin to me. You definitely need a pos. ID on this one!

Hi Normana53,
Is this Nursery web spider toxic\harmfull ? I cant seem to find much on them. Wikipedia does not make mention of the venom or anything like that.
My 18 month old son was about 5cm away from putting his mouth on it, yet the spider did not even move. I luckily saw him approaching it and quickly pulled him away.
Hope it is not harmfull !!!

Only a handful of spiders in SA hold any real danger to humans. Nursery web spiders are not one of them.

JetJ,
Imberbe is correct they are not dangerous (Thank you Imberbe for the quick response), though I am sure they would be pretty bitter tasting were your 18 month old to eat one.

Only dangerous spiders I know of are teh violin, 6 eyed crab, the sac spider, and the brown and black widow spider.

The rain spider (palystes sp) are alaring when they coe into teh house, I hate them to be honest, and give the a wide berth.

The "red roman" - These are sun or caels spiders, solipugids. Here in teh East Cape, on teh warest of sumer evenings, they can be seen running around on the dirt roads in teh cars' headlights.

They are no poisonous.
As far as teh tarantulas (4 lunged) spiders go, none are venoous as in deadly, but allergic reactions have been reported.


(I think I must get my 'm' key sorte dout, my spellig is awful)

what kind of spider makes this web over a hole (Metsi Metsi Trail, January 2010)



thanks

Not too sure actually.

My friend has holes all over his yard, but they are ainly on slopes. When we poured water into them, small baboon spiders come out.

However, I have also seen funnel web spiders make teh same hole with silk around. although usually in piles of old bricks...

now that you mention it, I believe the guides said it was a funnel spider web

did they try to coax it out with that green bit of grass sticking in teh hole ? hehe Best bet is to tease teh rim, they think its a struggling insect

yeah, that's what they did

Hi folks
it's a male Baboon spider, probably soe kind of Harpactira sp. Have a look at the image of the spider in the jar. Look at the front pair of legs, you can see mating spurs. Males use these spurs to hold the females fangs back while mating.

The photo from the top clearly shows it's a sexually mature male Baboon spider. See the reduced abdomen compared to the cephalothorax. The fact that it was found running around outside of a burrow.

Kind regards
Jonathan

Can anyone help with an ID of this spider, seen in Kgalagadi in March 2010.

Arks,

Not sure, could be a Banded Garden Spider. Family -Araneidae subfamily - Argiope sp.
Maybe someone better than me can verify or reject my guess.

Golden Orb??