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Sticker of Bogota giant fishing spider
Bug card No. 0576 of 4,939

Bogota giant fishing spider

Ancylometes bogotensis
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersPonds, rivers and shores8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The Bogota giant fishing spider is a big brown spider that loves water. It lives on floating meadows of grass and in flooded forests along rivers. When something scares it, it dives under water and can hide there for up to 20 minutes.

Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
Central America and northern and western South America, from Honduras to Bolivia
Length
2.1 to 2.6 cm (0.83 to 1 in)
Top speed
about 1.9 km/h (1.2 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Can bite

Spiders are venomous! Read about spider venom on Venom Wiki →

What does it eat?
It is a hunter that catches frogs and tadpoles at the water's edge.
For real!Photo of Bogota giant fishing spider
Picture by squiresk. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Bogota giant fishing spider about 2.6 cm long (1 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 4 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 1.9 secondsmoves 20 times its own body length every second

How big is Bogota giant fishing spider compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The girls are bigger than the boys: about 26 millimetres long, while the boys are about 21.

2

A mother makes a big egg sac with 300 to 400 eggs, and sometimes even 600.

3

The boys have wide white or yellow stripes on the sides of the front part of their body.

4

It was first described in 1877 from a spider found in Bogotá, Colombia, which is where its name comes from.

you asked

Most asked questions about Bogota giant fishing spider

?Can the Bogota giant fishing spider swim?

It lives on and around water and can hide under water for up to 20 minutes.

?What does the Bogota giant fishing spider eat?

It hunts frogs and tadpoles.

?How big is the Bogota giant fishing spider?

Females are about 26 millimetres long and males about 21, not counting the legs.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Ancylometes bogotensis
Named by
Keyserling, 1877
Group
Spiders
Family
Ancylometidae
Classification
Arachnida > Araneae > Ancylometidae
Lives on
North America, South America

Where the facts come from

  1. Ancylometes bogotensis (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by squiresk. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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Honey jarfor grown-ups