page_title: Palystes
section_title: Habits
hierarchical_section_title: Palystes / Habits
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a typical Palystes egg sac or purse in a typical setting. The long axis is about 8 cm.
context_page_description: Palystes is a genus of huntsman spiders, commonly called rain spiders or lizard-eating spiders, occurring in Africa, India, Australia, and the Pacific. The most common and widespread species is P. superciliosus, found in South Africa, home to 12 species in the genus. The name Palystes is derived from either the Latin palaestes or the Greek palaistes, meaning "wrestler". The genus was first described by Ludwig Carl Christian Koch in 1875.
context_section_description: While Palystes species mostly hunt insects on plants, they commonly enter houses before rain, or during the summer, where they  prey on geckos (usually Afrogecko porphyreus in the Western Cape, or Lygodactylus capensis in the eastern parts of southern Africa). Males are regularly seen from August to December, probably looking for females.
  The large, round egg sacs of P. castaneus and P. superciliosus are commonly seen from about November to April. After mating in the early summer, the female makes a 60- to 100-mm sac out of silk, with twigs and leaves woven into it. She constructs the sac over 3–5 hours, then aggressively guards it until the spiderlings, which hatch inside the protective sac, chew their way out about three weeks later. Females  construct about three of these egg sacs over their two-year lives. Many gardeners are bitten by protective Palystes mothers during this period.
caption: Egg sac of P. castaneus
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