| Latin Name | Observation Date | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Pardosa pseudoannulata | Sep 28, 2026 | Natore, Bangladesh |
If you look closely at this spider sitting on the green leaves of a tree, you will be surprised to see countless small babies crawling around its back and abdomen. Such a wonderful scene of motherhood is truly rare in nature. They do not sit quietly in their webs like other common spiders, but rather they are very fast hunters and work as the best friends of farmers. Let us know in detail about the wolf spider, which has wonderful maternal love.
Scientific name:
In the scientific world, the specific scientific name of this spider is Pardosa pseudoannulata.
Family and genus:
According to the classification of the animal kingdom, this spider mainly belongs to the Lycosidae family. They are widely known as wolf spiders. In the scientific world, their genus or genus name is Pardosa.
Home and Habitat:
They are widely distributed in various countries of East and South Asia, including Bangladesh, India, China, Japan, Korea. They are found in abundance in the agricultural lands, paddy fields, wastelands and open environments around water bodies in our country. Especially in the agricultural lands of China, they reign as the most dominant predators and can run very fast over water bodies. Their ideal temperature for survival and good egg hatching is 20 to 30 degrees Celsius, of which 25 degrees Celsius is the most suitable. When the temperature drops below 10 degrees Celsius, they stop eating and drinking and their growth also stops. When the temperature rises above 40 degrees, they hide in holes. They mainly spend the winter in a dormant state and about two and a half generations are born in a year.
Food and Hunting Strategy:
These spiders do not weave webs and catch prey. They lack the gene for making webs in their bodies, but instead they have a strong neurotoxic venom. They mainly hunt by jumping on their prey while walking or running. Their main food is harmful insects in rice fields and gardens, especially brown planthoppers, which make up about 30 percent of their total diet. Interestingly, they exhibit 'sexual cannibalism'. Before or after mating, the female spider hunts and eats the male spider, which is a major source of nutrition for the female spider and accounts for about 25 percent of their total diet. This nutrition increases the survival rate of their eggs and young.
Shape and lifestyle:
The female spiders of this species are about 1.3 times larger than the males. They have ring-like spots on their legs and a dark band on their chest. There are six black dots on the lower abdomen. They have three rows of eyes; four in the front row and two in the back two rows. The physical structure of this spider has a great impact on its survival ability. Those with a large abdomen can survive for a long time without eating, and those with a large head or cephalothorax are more skilled at hunting. Female spiders mate only once in their lives and carry the egg sac on the back of their bodies. As you can see in the picture, after the eggs hatch, the chicks immediately jump onto the mother's back and abdomen. For about 5 days, these small chicks ride on the mother's body in a very protected state. During this time, they survive by taking nutrients from the remnants of the mother's egg yolk. After 5 days, they slowly descend from the mother's body and spread out under fallen leaves or in nature on their own.
Benefits:
They are a very useful organism in agriculture and in naturally controlling harmful insects. They naturally protect crops by eating harmful brown planthoppers and other pests in rice fields and agricultural lands. In modern agricultural research, a lot of research is being done to use their venom as a natural pesticide, so that the use of harmful chemical pesticides can be reduced.
Harm:
They have no harm at all in agriculture or gardening. Although their venom can paralyze small insects, it is not harmful to humans at all; most people may experience a slight rash or allergy on their skin. Since I also have China Three lemon, orange and Malta trees in my own garden, I can be quite confident when I see such beneficial predatory spiders on the leaves of the trees or in the garden soil that my plants are naturally controlling harmful insects.
I learned about them from various sites including iNaturalist, Wikipedia and Google.
(All posts are written in Bengali and translated into English using Google Translate.)
| Camera Used | Samsung SM-G973F |
|---|---|
| F-Stop | F2.4 |
| ISO speed | ISO |
| Focal length | 26mm |
| Flash | No |
| Editing app | Lightroom |
| Photography | (Pardosa pseudoannulata) |
| Photographer |  @mshbd |
| Location | Natore, Bangladesh |
| Link to original community |
|---|
| https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=12/24.3360/89.1127 |
| Latitude | Longitude | Map Link |
|---|---|---|
| 24.3360 | 89.1127 | https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=12/24.3360/89.1127 |