Agroeca brunnea

Feenlämpchenspinne ( Agroeca brunnea ), male

The Feenlämpchenspinne or brown box spider ( Agroeca brunnea ) is a web spider from the family of field spiders.

Description

The animals are pretty unimpressive, the females are 6 to 10 millimeters in size, the males 5 to 7 millimeters. The color is brownish. The Feenlämpchenspinne is the largest species of the genus Agroeca.

Occurrence

The Feenlämpchenspinne is located in Northern, Western and Central Europe. She lives hidden forest edges in moss or litter.

Way of life

After mating, the female is the cocoon, the so-called Feenlämpchen in two night shifts ago. During the first night is the female the bell-shaped cocoon forth, which is attached with multiple threads on a plant and then puts into their eggs. The following night, the female disguise the cocoon with Erdkrumen. The cocoon itself has two chambers one above the other. At the top there are the eggs in the bottom, the young can stay for up to the first molt. However, the cocoon can of parasitic wasps ( Ichneumonidae ) are parasitized, eg Bathythrix formosa, whose larvae grow up there and feed on the young spiders.