Desert Velvet Spider \ Stegodyphus lineatus

The Desert Velvet Spider (Stegodyphus lineatus) belongs to the velvet spider family, Eresidae. Its range reaches from southern Europe and North Africa through the Middle East to Central Asia, and it was photographed in the desert of the United Arab Emirates. The abdomen is cloaked in white hairs and marked with two black stripes running lengthwise. The eyes are arranged in a distinctive way: the four central eyes sit tightly together in a square, while the four side eyes are set well apart. Females are the larger sex, measuring 10–23 mm in body length against 8–15 mm for males, and their black stripes are narrower. The easiest way to find this spider is by its web. It stretches a hackle web between two anchor points, usually in Acacia trees and occasionally between rocks or stones. At one end, a small ball-shaped nest is fixed to the vegetation, and the spider shelters inside it through the day. Several spiders can share a single tree. Its toxicity is rated low. On one night in the UAE desert, the photographer found a few of these spiders, and each had built its nest in its own way: one on a branch beneath a flower, another on thick sand. It is a rewarding subject for anyone photographing desert life after dark. Globally the species is Not Evaluated, and it does not appear on the UAE National Red List.