CreatureData

Water spider

Dolomedes aquaticus Goyen, 1888

Status not recordedspiders

The water spider (Dolomedes aquaticus) is a species in the family Dolomedidae, order Araneae. Source checklists list it for 1 country: New Zealand.

No freely licensed photo yet

Quick facts about the water spider

Weight
Not recorded
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

Where does the water spider live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The water spider is listed for 1 country.

New Zealand
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. New Zealand

Why a country list is not a range map

Is the water spider endangered?

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

How is the water spider classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumArthropoda
  3. classArachnida
  4. orderAraneae
  5. familyDolomedidae
  6. genusDolomedes
  7. SpeciesDolomedes aquaticus Goyen, 1888
Other names and names in other languages (1)
  • PaparetiretiwaiMāori

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the water spider

Other species in the same genus Dolomedes.

Raft spider

Dolomedes fimbriatus

DolomedidaeNo free photo yet

CompareWater spider vs Raft spiderWater spider vs Fen raft spiderWater spider vs Nurseryweb spiderWater spider vs Okefenokee fishing spider

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

Where does the water spider live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the water spider for 1 country: New Zealand. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

What kind of animal is the water spider?

The water spider (Dolomedes aquaticus) belongs to the family Dolomedidae in the order Araneae.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-14. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Water spider (Dolomedes aquaticus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/water-spider

MLA

“Water spider (Dolomedes aquaticus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/water-spider.

BibTeX
@misc{water_spider_2026,
  title = {Water spider (Dolomedes aquaticus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/water-spider},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-14}
}