Euprosthenops australis

Nursery web spiders (Pisauridae) is a family of araneomorph spiders that resemble wolf spiders (Lycosidae) except for several key differences. Wolf spiders have two very prominent eyes in addition to the other six, while a nursery web spider’s eyes are all about the same size.  Additionally, female nursery web spiders carry their egg sacs with their jaws and pedipalps instead of attaching them to their spinnerets as wolf spiders do. When the eggs are about to hatch, a female spider builds a nursery “tent”, places her egg sac inside, and stands guard outside, hence the family’s common name. Like the wolf spiders, however, the nursery web spiders are roaming hunters that don’t use webs for catching prey.