''Cambridgea foliata'' (common name, New Zealand sheet-web spider) is a species of

Desidae Desidae is a family of spiders, some of which are known as intertidal spiders. The family is named for the genus '' Desis'', members of which live in a very unusual location — between the tides. The family has been reevaluated in recent years an ...

spider endemic to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

.Forster, R.R.; Wilton, C.L. 1973. The spiders of New Zealand. Part 4, Agelenidae, Stiphidiidae, Amphinectidae, Amaurobiidae, Neolanidae, Ctenidae, Psechridae. ''Otago Museum Bulletin'', ''4.'' These nocturnal, arboreal spiders are distributed throughout the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

of New Zealand and build large horizontal sheet-webs with a large number of knock-down threads.

Description

''C. foliata'' have a reddish-brown cephalothorax and greyish yellow abdomen. While males and females of this species are of a similar size with a cephalothorax width of approximately 5.8mm, males have significantly longer

chelicerae The chelicerae () are the mouthparts of the subphylum Chelicerata, an arthropod group that includes arachnids, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. Commonly referred to as "jaws", chelicerae may be shaped as either articulated fangs, or similarly ...

compared to females. While males of other ''Cambridgea species'' possess a

stridulatory organ Stridulation is the act of producing sound by rubbing together certain body parts. This behavior is mostly associated with insects, but other animals are known to do this as well, such as a number of species of fish, snakes and spiders. The mech ...

on the dorsal surface of the pedicel and abdomen, it is absent in male ''C. foliata'.''

Contest behaviour

In the summer season, mature males depart their natal webs in search of females, sometimes wandering into people's houses'. When they find a female's web, they will use their first pair of legs and chelicerae to defend the web and female from any other males which may intrude, with the largest males tending to be most successful at defending webs.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2328350 Desidae Spiders of New Zealand Endemic fauna of New Zealand Spiders described in 1872