White spider with black dots.

Good close-up pic :o)

Fascinating little creature and obviously a good mum :)

She's pulled down three lobes of the leaf and made a green tent for her moonegg with gossamer guy ropes. She has a gossamer thread fluttering in the breeze to catch tiny flies I suppose.

do you know what type it is? Most "spider" sites only give exotic types, tarantulas and such - and of native spiders, I only really know about the "Common Cross" - used to be lots of them around "when I were young"

Just Googled images "white spider with black dots" - found this picture: http://bugguide.net/node/view/383472/bgimage - does it look like yours?

most of the website search results turned out to be for black spiders with white spots

the few white spiders I've found seem to be "crab spiders",

http://www.anje.co.uk/spider.html - need to scroll down to find the female. If yours is this species, Dorjac, once she's laid her eggs she stops eating and guards them till she dies. devoted mother indeed!!

Thats is what happened Fran. They hatched out and were very slow to leave the shelter of the leaf. She got smaller and smaller, then a little corpse, then vanished. They didn't all leave at once but trickled away over quite a long time. One of nature's curiosities. A bit sad really.

It's sad that they evolved to be so extreme, but I assume that if she left to hunt, the eggs ould be at risk, so this turned out to be the best for the species in general, if not for individual members of it!