Learn something new every day More Info... by email A wheel
spider is an amazingly unique creature found in the Namib Desert
in southern Africa. Also called a golden wheel spider or a
dancing white lady spider, the wheel spider evades predators by
burrowing into the sand or by rolling itself into a ball and
cartwheeling down sand dunes at a remarkable speed. The wheel
spider's primary predator is the parasitic pompilid wasp. One
typically expects to find spiders where there is vegetation or
other structures in which to build webs to capture prey. The
wheel spider is among some of the more than 400,000 spider
species which do not build webs. They are nocturnal hunters,
which means they hunt at night, and their prey is insects, which
they inject with venom. The wheel spider's venom is not
considered to be harmful to humans, however. Typical wheel
spiders are about three fourths of an inch (20 mm) in diameter.
They are also called dancing white lady spiders because of their
color. The spider camouflages itself a