All around our coastline, remarkable little spiders are toughing it out in unlikely locations. But perhaps no spider is living in a stranger habitat than the intertidal spider Desis marina.
This species lives inside the holdfast of kelp in the intertidal zone – the area on the beach between high and low tide.
The spider creates a waterproof silken burrow inside the kelp and can survive up to 19 days underwater.
Intertidal spider (Desis marina). Photo: Forest & Bird
