NURSERY WEB

If you come across one of these silken tents at about knee height in long grass, you have been privileged to see the web of the nursery web spider.  

Mother NWS wraps her eggs in a silk cocoon and carries it round, 

grasped in her chelicerae or jaws.  

Photo: Martin Askins, British Arachnological Society

When she senses they are about to hatch she hangs the cocoon on low vegetation and weaves the nursey web over and around it.  She stays on guard over the eggs and even over the spiderlings, once hatched.  But after their second moult her babies disperse to avoid being eaten by their brothers and sisters so mum goes off duty.  

The nursery web shows up even better after rain or a heavy dew.

There are two more interesting facts about this species: first, you can often spot one sunbathing on a nettle leaf with the four front legs pointing forward.  There is a white stripe down the middle of the cephalothorax (front bit) to help you identify it as a NWS.

Photo David Nicholls, Naturespot

Second: the courtship behaviour. The male catches some tasty prey and wraps it in silk.  Then he goes in search of a female.  To distract her from treating him as a tasty lunch, he proffers the gift-wrapped present and while she is enjoying that he mates with her - not forgetting to leg it afterwards before he gets eaten.

I have also come across webs full of spiderlings on nettle plants, but I'm not sure if these are the same species or not.