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Sociable Delena cancerides
Just when you thought Australia couldn't get any more intriguing, hey - how about....sociable spiders! These arachnids prefer to hang out in groups and co-operate to pool their powers of exploiting resources that would elude a solo player. The colony will take on larger prey, which I think is the driving force behind the sociability. Research has documented birds, bats and very large insects being taken down.
Only 25 or so spider species out of the total 46,000 worldwide behave this way, such as these Huntsman from here in Australia. How cool is that?! A shot of a grouping, in a friend's private breeding programme. Body length 25 mm
"Delena cancerides" is a large, brown huntsman spider native to Australia. It has been introduced to New Zealand, where it is sometimes known as the Avondale spider as they are commonly found in the suburb of Avondale, Auckland.
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