Ecology: Phil's photo - the sheetweb

Photo / Phil Brown

This week, Phil has snapped us a sheetweb spider.

These guys hide out of sight during the day and emerge under the cover of darkness to snack on insects and anything that falls in their nets. Phil works as a night tour guide at Maungatautari Ecological Island and often comes across the weird and wonderful creatures of the night.

"When walking through the bush during the day you will see lots of horizontal webs with no spiders," he says. "That's why we do night walks on Maungatautari.

"There are about thirty different species of sheetweb in the genus Cambridgea. Some sheetweb spiders do have big fangs but I have never had one bite me! To prove a point, if I find one on the track at night I will put it on my arm and let it run up and down for people to see.

"When an insect falls into the top of the web, the spider reaches through and grabs it as shown in the image above. It is not unusual to see a stick insect up to 15cm long struggling to get away, with the fangs of the sheetweb spider stuck through the middle of it."

For more information on Maungatautari Ecological Island visit their website or their facebook page.

To see more of Phil's work check out his website.