Cat Face Spider

Cat Face Spider – is representative of orb weaver spiders of Family Araeniidae Order Arachnida Araneus gemmoides.

The markings on this spider’s back are thought to resemble a cat’s face, complete with bumps that look like ears. I’m not sure if you see the cat by looking from the front of the spider or the back; see what you think. This is a fairly large spider, about 20mm, or almost the size of a quarter dollar. Its habit of building its large orb webs inside barns and outbuildings, and near light sources causes an inordinate number of human encounters.

The spider family Deinopidae consists of stick-like elongate spiders that build unusual webs that they suspend between the front legs. When prey approaches, the spider will stretch the net to two or three times its relaxed size and propel itself onto the prey, entangling it in the web. Because of this, they are also called net-casting spiders . Their excellent night-vision adapted posterior median eyes allow them to cast this net over potential prey items. These eyes are so large in comparison to the other six eyes that the spider seems to have only two eyes.

The genus Deinopis is the best known in this family. Spiders in this genus are also called ogre-faced spiders , due to the similarity between their appearance and that of the mythological creature, the ogre. It is distributed nearly worldwide in the tropics, from Australia to Africa and the Americas. In Florida, Deinopis often hangs upside-down from a silk line under palmetto fronds during the day. It emerges at night to practice its unusual prey capture method.

Life Cycle of Cat faced spider:The cat faced spider spends the winter in the egg stage, within a silk-covered sac produced by the mother during fall. Eggs hatch in spring and the tiny spiderlings disperse, usually by ballooning. This involves movement to the edge of a leaf or other exposed point where they then let out silken threads. Light winds catch the threads and carry the spiderlings, thus redistributing them thoroughly each new season.

Cat faced spider captures prey by use of a sticky web that it usually establishes among vegetation a few feet above ground. The web is of concentric design, typical of those spiders in the orb-weaver spider family, with spiraling sticky coils. As the web is damaged, it may be torn down, consumed and reconstructed regularly. The spiders may also relocate their webs repeatedly. Late in the season cat-faced spiders are most often seen near porch lights or just outside windows, areas that are likely to attract flying insects.

During the day the spiders sometimes may be seen in the center area of the web or even at work in its repair. However, usually they remain within an area of retreat at a corner of the web, often hidden. While waiting within the retreat a leg maintains contact with a thread of the web to detect vibrations indicating snared prey. When an insect does get stopped in the web the spider moves out, swaths it with sheets of silk, then paralyzes it with its digestive saliva. The prey is then usually carried back to the area where the spider later consumes it.

Mating time the smaller males move about in search of receptive females. After mating, sperm is stored by the female and later used to fertilize the eggs. As the eggs mature the body of the female spider may rapidly increase greatly in size. Ultimately an egg sac is produced somewhere in the near vicinity of the web. Cat faced spider will continue to live for awhile longer and may even produce a second egg sac. At the end of the season all the spiders die and the only surviving stage between growing seasons are eggs.

Roughly the size of a quarter, they can cause alarm among humans who notice them near porch lights. However, they are harmless to humans, and their control of the insect population makes them good spiders to keep around.cat-faced spider may give good fundamentally different too steep pinch of very different eat away, although they can absolutely wrong normally pierce the skin. Furthermore, they are absolutely wrong completely different terribly dangerous species and do without absolutely wrong .

Cat Face Spider Young do eat their brothers and sisters! Adults eat garden insects up to large insects.

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