Six-spotted Fishing Spider (Dolomedes triton)
Six-spotted Fishing Spider (Dolomedes triton)
This individual was caught by a volunteer in a nearby pond here in Raleigh, NC and brought into the museum a month or two ago. We released it into our locomotion tank (a sort of simulated pond) and hadn't seen it since. We assumed it must have been eaten by one of the other inhabitants in the tank until yesterday when I saw it and was able to take some pictures.
when I got too close it dove directly down into the water - which is likely the reason we couldn't find it before. I knew they could go underwater but I didn't know how little it would take to convince this species to do so. All the previous fishing spiders we have kept were Dolomedes tenebrosus and they preferred to stay on the walls of the tank. This guy doesn't ever seem to leave the water.
The lighting is a little skewed because the tank he was in was dark and I was trying to photograph him around the vegetation without him darting back underwater. I think it turned out pretty well though.
This individual was caught by a volunteer in a nearby pond here in Raleigh, NC and brought into the museum a month or two ago. We released it into our locomotion tank (a sort of simulated pond) and hadn't seen it since. We assumed it must have been eaten by one of the other inhabitants in the tank until yesterday when I saw it and was able to take some pictures.
when I got too close it dove directly down into the water - which is likely the reason we couldn't find it before. I knew they could go underwater but I didn't know how little it would take to convince this species to do so. All the previous fishing spiders we have kept were Dolomedes tenebrosus and they preferred to stay on the walls of the tank. This guy doesn't ever seem to leave the water.
The lighting is a little skewed because the tank he was in was dark and I was trying to photograph him around the vegetation without him darting back underwater. I think it turned out pretty well though.