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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about grass spiders. There are lots of different grass spiders around the world, so today we’re going to narrow down our topic specifically to American grass spiders which are found in North America ranging from Canada to northern Mexico. There are currently fourteen described species of American grass spiders, and though they spend a lot of their time living in the grass - which would be the reason for their namesake - these spiders have another common name. Grass spiders are also known as funnel weavers, and this name is based on their web construction. Go out on a spring, summer, or fall morning and look through the grass. Often the webs of these spiders are easy to spot as dew clings to them. A grass spider’s web may be on ground spread between blades of grass, along a sidewalk, or even up in shrubs and bushes. Upon closer inspection, a grass spider’s web looks like a messy blanket of silk that funnels to an opening. This web shape is also associated with other funnel weavers who might pose a threat to humans, such as hobo spiders or wolf spiders, but grass spiders are harmless, at least to people.

It can be relatively easy to identify a spider from this genus because they look like they have tails. No, grass spiders don’t actually have tails, but their spinnerets are so long they have a tail-like appearance. Spinnerets are the structures from which spider silk emerges, so they’re used for web building. Unlike other spider species, like spiny orb weavers for example, grass spiders do not produce sticky silk. Instead of catching their prey in a sticky web, a grass spider depends on its own swift movement to ensnare a meal. When a prey item, such as an insect, falls into a grass spider’s web the insect’s feet will become momentarily stuck in the messy webbing. This moment is more than enough time for a grass spider to dash from the funnel opening, inspect the insect, bite and subdue it, and then drag it back into the funnel where it will be eaten.

Grass spiders spend most of their time inside the funnel portion of their webs, so they often go unseen; however, in the winter they may make an effort to enter human dwellings. As the temperature drops in the late fall, grass spiders may seek out the warmth emanating from our homes. Most won’t even make it this far, though. Grass spiders don’t live past a year in the wild with most individuals dying off after mating in the early fall. To find a mate, male grass spiders will start roving, while female grass spiders will just stay put in their webs. When a male comes upon a female and they fancy each other, they will mate. The male will die shortly after this pairing, but the female has work to do laying eggs. Grass spider eggs are laid in a disc-shaped egg sac that is hidden in a crevice or under debris. The female will die soon after laying her eggs, and the babies won’t emerge until the next spring.

At full size, these spiders can reach more than an inch (2.54 centimeters) in length including their legs. Though their instinct is to flee to their funnel shaped nests from any kind of danger, grass spiders may be eaten by other arthropods, small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds.

For more facts on grass spiders, check out the links in the description. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.