The wasp spider

Denmark’s most exotic-looking spider can be difficult to find, even though it can measure up to 2 cm in length. The colourful wasp spider, with its yellow, black and white striped abdomen, likes to spin its web deep down between the plants, so it can easily be overseen. It stays close the ground because it specialises in eating grasshoppers. It can be easier to spot its web, which has a distinct white zigzag stripe through the middle, or to look out for the spider’s egg cocoons that look like tiny, (approx. 1 cm long) slightly dusty pears.

The wasp spider is a quite recent addition to the Danish animal world. The first recorded find was in 1992, in Copenhagen’s deer park, but it has now spread throughout the entire country.

If you find an area with many wasp spiders, try to make a family album with them. The patterns on their backs vary so much, that you can identify each spider from its pattern and if you visit the same place several times in a season, then you can follow the life of an individual animal.