Spider molt

Very cool series. I love the one of the empty skin.

A couple questions:
How did you know it was about ready to molt?

How long did the whole process take?

archer1960 wrote in post #16120375
A couple questions:
How did you know it was about ready to molt?

How long did the whole process take?

Nursery Web Spiders don't use webs to catch prey (at least from my experience); they hunt (on land, and water surfaces). I've seen numerous molted skins, each hanging by a strand of silk, and another NWS that was just beginning to molt a couple years ago (that I wasn't able to shoot) also hanging by a strand. So when I saw this one just hanging there, I kind of knew what it was up to.

From the shot I took of it pulling it's legs out, to when it completely disconnected, was about 20 minutes. I'd probably add another 10-15 for the part of the process I missed. So, 30-35 minutes.