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Dienopus subrufa

Site by Weblight Studio (Australia) Photography by Steve Solomons. All rights reserved

Commonly called Net-casting and Ogre-faced spiders these are a large, slow moving spider normally found among complex foliage close to the ground.

They are believed to be harmless and the ones photographed here were gentle creatures. I try not to disturb spiders but the first attempts to "shoot" these spiders were at night and to ensure a good shot the female was also photographed indoors. She was no problem to handle

Although they look quite different these appear to both be females. They were both found, in my garden, in the same tiny clearing about a year apart. There is some doubt as to the gender of the one on the left and I wish I had taken more care to check it out when I was photographing it.

The spider to the left was photographed in the afternoon just as the light began to go soft. The spider above was the one I had to bring inside because I was having trouble with shooting her at night. The colour is accurate in both photographs apart from the black at the back of the reddish abdomen which is a trick of the light. She was evenly colored.

The male below is 10cm diagonally across the legs. In this case he was photographed during the day in a tiny arena approx 15cm across and not much deeper. It was surrounded by tightly jumbled foliage of the type in the picture and apart from it being during the day is a favored position

These spiders hunt using an amazing net of about 2cm square. They relax and hold the net loosely until they see prey. They move into casting range and spread the net tightly between their legs before flinging it over the prey.

The net probably snaps back into shape as it stikes making the contact with the prey even more secure. The Netcasting Spider hunts at night. All of the pictures above the hunting scene are of day-time resting spots or resting by their hunting spot.

In the picture below the big female is in the process of spreading the net to grab a large ant. She did not get dinner that night however as she is the spider who ended being captured and photographed in the bottle

male

female

female

probably a female

Further information can be obtained from Googling the spider's name or by looking on the links on the site information page which is off the home page