Notes on Clubiona stagnatilis
Clubiona stagnatilis Kulcz. as a predator on Pisaura mirabilis (Clk.) spiderlings by A. E. Cooper
From The Newsletter No. 5 November 1972
While examining the nursery tent of a Pisaura mirabilis (Clerck) at Hengistbury Head, Christchurch, Hants, on 1st. August, 1972, a plump Clubionid spider dropped out of the tent, carrying a small object in its chelicerae. This spider was taken and subsequently identified as an adult female Clubiona stagnatilis Kulcz. and the object that it had been carrying was the remains of a small spider, presumably a young Pisaura mirabilis.
A closer examination of the tent, which was built in a marshy area of rushes, (Juncus sp.) showed that there were not more than a dozen young spiders remaining in the tent, compared with the thirty or so young in other tents examined in the vicinity. There was no adult female P. mirabilis in attendance at the tent at the time.
No other such predation was found, although C. stagnatilis is frequent
in this area.
Added by John Partridge at 10:31 on Tue 3rd Jan 2012.
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