"Will you walk into my parlour?"

  
    The first line of Mary Howitt's 1829 poem "The Spider and the Fly" was often recited to me as a warning when I was young.  The poem tells of a spider whose flattery lures a fly into his "parlour." The poem ends with disastrous results for the fly.
    Grass Spiders build their webs low to the ground in grass or low shrubs. The web is shaped like a hammock with a few threads over the top. Those threads are there to confuse and trap flying insects. At the very back is a funnel where she sits quietly and waits for her supper to drop in. When a bug strikes her web she feels the vibration and  rushes up at break-neck speed to catch her prey.
    This is a female Grass Spider. I am pretty sure it's a female because the males have large round endings at the tip of their pedipalps. Also, the males do not build webs. They just wander around looking for a mate and then they die. Silly males.
    See the things that look like short legs or antennae right next to her face? Those are pedipalps. She uses them as feelers. She may also use them in web building and in catching and eating insects.
    In between the pedipalps are two big black shiny things. Those are her chelicera. Chelicera are like jaws. Hers open from side to side, not up and down like our jaws.
    Grass Spiders have poison in their chelicera to paralyze prey. Once her insect prey is helpless she carries it to her lair and eats it.
    The Grass Spider differs from most spiders in that she does not build a web that is sticky. She relies totally on her speed to catch insects. I saw this one catch a bug and believe me, she is startlingly fast!
    Click here if you would like to read  "The Spider and the Fly".