Family Pisauridae
Nursery web spiders and fishing spiders are in the same family, which is the family Pisauridae. Sexual cannibalism (when the female eats the male after mating) is common in the family, so the male will give the female a gift before to ease her hunger a little bit, so that the male will have more time to mate before the female gets hungry again. An inedible gift, such as an exoskeleton of a bug, means the least amount of time, while a horsefly (Mmmm, delicious... NOT!), which is a treat for spiders of these sorts, will ensure more--but not infinite--time for the spiders to reproduce before the female eats him. They can walk on water, and will sometimes dive under to get tadpoles, small fish, and sometimes worms. On dry land, they will eat any insect that gets ensnared in their web. It closely resembles wolf spiders, although one difference is the eye pattern of each. Nursery web spiders have four eyes on the bottom forming a straight line and four on the top in a sort of U shape. Wolf spiders have eight eyes as well, although they have two large, main eyes, four other ones on the bottom forming a downward curve, and two smaller ones on the top that seem like oval-ish slits. For more information about their eye arrangements, click here. Females, once the egg sac is laid, will carry it with her by using her fangs. When it is nearing the time for the eggs to hatch, she will suspend it off of a web until they hatch, and will remain there until all of her spiderlings have dispersed. pictures are right here, too, if you are interested in other photos than what I have shown above.
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