Female nursery web spiders are 12 to 15 mm long, the males are slightly smaller. They are gray, yellowish-orange or brown with a pointed abdomen.
Nursery web spiders predominantly inhabit woodland, but they are also found in long grass and occasionally hedgerows.
Nursery web spiders hunt small insects and occasionally other spiders. They do not use webs to trap prey. Instead, they hunt by waiting on a leaf until a victim wanders by.
The photograph of the nursery web spider on a stinging nettle leaf was taken in our garden yesterday.