Dancing white lady spider
The dancing white lady spider is a big, creamy white spider that lives in the sand dunes of the Namib Desert. It spends the hot day in a cool burrow and comes out at night. It talks to other spiders by drumming its front legs on the sand.
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Fun facts
Boys can have a leg span of up to 14 centimetres, wider than a grown-up's hand.
Its burrow in the sand is lined with silk so the walls do not fall in.
It has eight eyes pointing in different directions, so it can see all around it in the dark.
Boys may walk more than 50 metres in one night looking for a girl.
The mother wraps about 76 eggs in a thick silk ball and hides it deep in her burrow.
Most asked questions about Dancing white lady spider
?Why is it called the dancing white lady spider?
It is white, and it taps and drums its legs on the sand, which looks a bit like dancing.
?How big is the dancing white lady spider?
Its body is up to 32 millimetres long, and boys can spread their legs up to 14 centimetres.
?What does the dancing white lady spider eat?
Mostly night-time insects like beetles and moths, and sometimes other spiders or small lizards.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Leucorchestris arenicola
- Named by
- Lawrence, 1962
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Sparassidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Sparassidae
- Lives on
- Africa
Where the facts come from
- Leucorchestris arenicola (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Frank Jeurissen Tcf0908. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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