Dolomedes plantarius was first described by Swedish arachnologist Carl Alexander Clerck in 1757 as Araneus plantarius but the genus was later reclassified as Dolomedes (Latreille, 1804). This species has also been described under the names Aranea viridata (Müller, 1776), Aranea plantarius (Olivier, 1789), Dolomedes riparius (Hahn, 1835), Dolomedes clerki (Simon, 1937; Renner, 1987). In the UK it is commonly known as the Fen Raft Spider but the name Great Raft Spider is also in frequent use.

Dolomedes plantarius is one of two species from the genus Dolomedes that occur in Europe. The other is the very similar Dolomedes fimbriatus, commonly, and confusingly, known in Britain as the Raft Spider (see also Identification). Although Europe has only two Dolomedes species, world-wide this is a large genus. Taxonomic revisions frequently change the total number of species but, in 2020, it was 106 (World Spider Catalog 2026). Although they are called raft spiders in Europe, the Dolomedes species are often known as fishing spiders, dock spiders or wharf spiders in north America, and as nursery web spiders in other regions.

The genus Dolomedes occurs all around the world and is particularly diverse in south-east Asia. Many, but by no means all, of the species are found in association with water and prey primarily on aquatic invertebrates. The striking lateral banding pattern seen in the European species occurs throughout the genus and appears to be particularly common in the more aquatic species (Baillie et al. 2019).

This patterning is also found in some other members of the same family, the Dolomedidae, to which the genus Dolomedes belongs, for example in Megadolomedes.

Note that until 2025 the Dolomedes species were included in the Family Pisauridae (see Yu et al. 2025). Many published accounts will still say that, along with the common Nurseryweb Spider Pisaura mirabilis, D. plantarius and D. fimbriatus are the only European members of this family.

References

Baillie, A. L., Baillie, S. R. & Smith, H. 2019. The heritability of lateral banding in Dolomedes plantarius. Arachnology 18: 237-244.

World Spider Catalog Version 27 https://wsc.nmbe.ch/ Downloaded on 20 August 2026.

Yu, K. P., Cheng, R. C., Haddad, C. R., Tanikawa, A., Pett, B. L., Piacentini, L. N., Yip, H. Y., Suzuki, Y., Henrard, A., Painting, C. J., Vink, C. J., Hebets, E. A., Harvey, M. S. & Kuntner, M. 2025. Systematics and evolutionary history of raft and nursery-webspiders (Araneae: Dolomedidae and Pisauridae). Zoologica Scripta 54(3): 421-436 & Suppl. doi: 10.1111/zsc.12719.