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_{Cartwheeling Spider
(Carparachne aureoflava})

This spider also known as the dancing white Lady spider is endemic to the Namib dune belt.

Two dancing white lady spiders occur in the Namib, but only Carparachne is known for its cart wheeling escape tactics. This large desert spider makes a burrow out of silk in the slip face of a dune which it closes with a little silk trap door. This spider can be found moving by night, mostly on the slip face of the dune while hunting insects. If threatened by enemies such as geckos then it dives off the steep slip face and curls into a ball and rolls down the dune at 44 roles per second, this is faster than any of its predators can run. Once the rolling has ended at the bottom of the dune it stands with 4 legs in the air jumping around in defense should any other predators be present. Has large fangs and can inflict a painful bite with mild venom.


(Normally with these guys, spiders, bugs, little critters, I like to get as close as I can to snap a pic, but we were advised this one could be a bit on the psycho-cranky side, so I resisted the urge to lay in the sand and snap it from eye-level like I did with this guy: or even closer, such as this one: ... )