This is a golden wheel spider looking for its prey
Today I want to write about an amazing spider called the golden wheel spider.
Here are five interesting facts about them:
- These strange little spiders are a member of the huntsman spider family and only grow to about 2 cm long.
- Golden wheel spiders hunt don’t build nests, but come out at night to hunt small insects.
- They get their name from the way they escape predators. They are hunted by pompilid wasps, who catch them to lay their eggs. When threatened by these wasps, the spider curls up its legs and rolls quickly down the steep sand dunes that they live on to get away.
- They also build silk-lined burrows in the sand up to 40-50 cm deep. To dig these burrows, they move about 10 litres of sand, which is about 80,000 times their body weight.
- Golden wheel spiders live in the sand dunes of Namibia.
I hope that you found these facts interesting and learned something new.
Are there any other interesting facts that you would like to share about golden wheel spiders?
