The Loneliness of the Long Distance Spider

Wandering down the garden with the macro lens, I came across this wandering male Nursery Web Spider. As you can see from his swollen palps in the picture, he's only got one thing on his mind - he's looking for lurve. I hope he's not disappointed. I've never recorded this species in my garden before so I hope he doesn't have to resort to Internet dating - male Nursery Web Spiders don't build webs. (Geddit? Geddit?) Their name comes from the silk cocoon the females build to protect their eggs and spiderlings. So here's the quiz question: how does a creature with a brain smaller than a speck of dust generate the complex behaviours of maternal care? 


Nursery Web Spider, Pisaura mirabilis

Nikon D7200 Tokina 100mm f16 1/250 ISO 100, 7 image focus stack.