Hello, who is this four legged fella? Is that a spider with only four legs? I always thought spiders had eight legs.

Yes it’s a spider…

Well actually some spiders when resting keep their legs in pairs. Although you have to look damn close to see that there are four pairs of legs. Apologies, in this photo I did not get quite close enough to allow that kind of zoom.

Net Casting Spider

Dani spotted this one on a wall near his school as we were walking home. It turns out that there are quite a few spiders that lie like this.

This one is called the Rufous net casting spider. One of several net casting spiders. This type of spider has a unique way of catching their prey. They make a small web in the form of a net held by the front legs that can be stretched out wide to envelop an unwary insect passing by. I got this photo from the “web” – pun fully intended.

This spider is very common in Australia and apparently in New Zealand. Although not harmful to humans it still looks a bit scary right? Australia is known for having some very frightening spiders – mainly the funnel-web and red back. But it turns out that there are anti-venom injections available for the bites of these two notorious arachnids. So even these can no longer kill a human. 

Dani seems to have a knack of spotting spiders even the tiniest ones. In this case I am glad he did. It’s always good to learn new things about nature.