Characteristics
Wheel spiders are up to 20 mm in size, with males and females the same size. The wheel spider does not make a web; it is a nocturnal, free-ranging hunter, coming out at night to prey on insects and other small invertebrates. Its bite is mildly venomous, but the spider is not known to be harmful to humans. Its principal line of defence against predation is to bury itself in a silk-lined burrow extending 40–50 cm deep. During the process of digging its burrow, the spider can shift up to of sand, 80,000 times its body weight. During the initial stages of building a burrow, the spider is vulnerable to pompilid wasps, which digs though the sand to sting and paralyze the spider, then lay eggs upon the still-living spider's body. Wasps usually win the fights against spiders. If the spider is unable to fight off a wasp and if the fight is on a sloped dune, the spider will use its rolling speed of to escape. ==References==