I’ve been told that, when a species does not have a common name, I should give it one. This little fellow deserves one, don’t you think? This handsome Metacyrba punctata jumping spider was wandering around on my garage door when I spotted him. He gave me a few choice leg gestures (“Go away! I’m busy!”)…
Tag: arachnid
Swift Crab Spider
Crab spiders get their name from their widely-splayed and elongated first two pairs of legs, which they use to catch prey bigger than they are. They do not build webs but wander around and hunt, often in flowers. Wrestling with prey several times their size can damage the spider — this one is missing a…
Pantropical Jumping Spider
I assumed at first this was a wolf spider, Lycosidae sp. I am hesitant to call it a jumping spider because this individual was “huge” — I would have put it at half an inch long — and pantropical jumping spiders seem to max out at 12mm with the females. On the other hand, half…
Six-Spotted Fishing Spider
Fish-eating spiders are found on every continent except Antarctica. They use surface tension to run on the surface of the water, hunting insects, small fish, tadpoles, and anything else that lives at or near the surface. The spiders can walk on the water by using their paired legs in a manner not unlike boat paddles,…
Silver Longjawed Orbweaver
This gorgeous little girl is posing on the orange moonscape that is my kayak. I helped her out of the water and onto the bow, and she was still riding when I got out, and kindly posed for me. This is definitely a female longjawed orbweaver spider, of the genus Tetragnatha. I am calling her…
Gray Wall Jumper
I glanced to my side while walking and happened to notice this minuscule little lady hanging out on the pier at Wilderness Lodge at Walt Disney World — so she might actually be a clever animatronic spider. Gray wall jumper spiders (Menemerus bivittatus) are actually human imports to Florida, but fortunately they’re one of the…
Mabel Orchard Orb Weaver
Leucauge comes from Greek roots which mean “with a bright gleam”. The family is differentiated from other tetragnathid spiders by their oval bodies and the brilliant orange markings on the underside of the abdomen. Honestly, this may also be a Leucauge venusta. The two species are essentially identical unless you want to get extremely intimate…
Hentz Orb Weaver Eating a Dragonfly
This is quite possibly the most “nature is metal” photo I’ve ever taken. This Hentz orb weaver spider (Neoscona crucifera), about 2″ radius max, has taken down a fully grown great blue skipper dragonfly (Libuella vibrans), which is about 3 1/2″ inches long. Imagine the rodeo that must have been!
Cribellate Orb Weaver
This gorgeous little lady is pretty certain to be Uloborus glomosus — one of very few Uloborus species in North America. Spiders in this family are notable for having very long front legs, with little tufts of hair around the far joints; they have a variety of common names, including feather-legged orb weaver and tufted…
Arrow-shaped Micrathena Spider
These striking spiders look like they ought to be related to the spiny orb-weaver (Gasteracantha sp). They are in the same family (Araneidae) but a different genus (Micrathena). They have fewer spines than Gasteracantha (and, again, probably a bunch of smaller details, like the number of hairs on the thorax or which way some microscopic…
Crowned Hentzia Jumping Spider
Probably an almost adult male, and all of 3mm long, this Hentzia jumping spider (Hentzia mitrata) was virtually invisible except when it moved. (Fully adult males are not spotted, like this one, and have larger and furrier chelicerae. There is a theory that resembling a female while it’s a juvenile can help protect a young…
Cellar Spider
Here’s where casual, amateur identification breaks down: these are definitely cellar spiders, of the family Pholcidae, but beyond that…. There are about 20 Pholcidae species in the US — and a couple hundred around the world. Knowing that I found this in Florida, it’s probably Pholcus phalangioides. They’re maybe two inches across from leg to…
Hentz Orb-Weaver
This immense nope of a spider, about two inches in diameter and very peeved to be disturbed, was encountered strung, at face-height, across a walking path at the Oakland Nature Preserve in Florida. I originally abandoned Neoscona crucifera (the Hentz orb-weaver) as a possible identification, since Wikipedia says they only get to be an inch…
Wall Spider
I needed help with this one (thank you, /r/spiders!). At 2.5mm long, there weren’t a lot of details to go on! This petite lady is an adult female wall spider (Oecobius navus, very probably), and isn’t she darling? She’s sitting on my pillowcase, to give you a sense of scale. Other than being tiny and…
Habronattus Jumping Spider
I am pretty sure this is a female jumping spider in the Habronattus family. There are eleven species of Habronattus in Florida, and, alas, they are primarily differentiated by the microscopic morphology of male pedipalps. This is a female spider (male jumping spiders tend to be more brightly colored than the females), and I have…
Magnolia Green Jumping Spider
The Magnolia green jumping spider (Lyssomanes viridis) — this individual is an adult male, with fantastically elongated chelicerae that you simply cannot see without macro photography. Compared to the more sedate, round females, this handsome boy looks almost like an alien being. I love this species’ little red “hat”! Lyssomanes are one of the more…