yellow cluster
Location: stewrtstown PA
May 21, 2011 1:58 pm
Hi. I was wondering what this yellow mass was. Found it hanging off a shasta daisy leaf in my perennial garden. Seems to be almost suspended with very faint spider webs surrounding it, not really growing ON anything. Maybe 1-2 inches long. Wasn’t sure if it was an insect egg mass or a slime mold–it’s been a very wet 2 weeks.
Signature: lt
Orbweaver Spiderlings
Dear It,
We believe these are newly hatched Orbweaver Spider spiderlings. They should soon disperse by releasing a strand of silk and catching a breeze, a technique known as ballooning.
Well thank you so much Daniel Marlos. I hope that’s what they are. I will watch closely. PS “Spiderlings” is a great word.
Thnx again
Lauren
¶ Posted 21 May 2011 § ‡ ° Baby Spiders
Location: East Bay Area, California
April 17, 2011 9:51 pm
I work in a preschool in Northern California and found these all over one of our play structures a couple weeks ago. We have all kinds of spiders, not all of them nice…can you tell me what these are?
Signature: R. Allen
Orbweaver Spiderlings
Dear R. Allen,
We believe these are Orbweaver Spiderlings. Orbweavers are magnificent spiders and they are not considered dangerous. Your photo will not post live until later in the week because we are postdating it along with several other postings in consideration of our brief holiday.
Thank you so much! Sigh of relief 
¶ Posted 24 April 2011 § ‡ ° Spider from namibia
Location: Windhoek Namibia
April 20, 2011 7:22 am
This spider has been building its web and weve been watching it and we would like to know more what spider it is and if it is poisenous ??? ETC…..
Signature: The spider watchers
Orbweaver
Dear Spider Watchers,
This is some species of Orbweaver. Orbweavers like all spiders are venomous, however they are not considered to be a threat. The effects of the bite of an Orbweaver are mild and generally last less than a few hours.
¶ Posted 20 April 2011 § ‡ ° Spiders Galore at Delray Oaks Natural Area
Location: Delray Beach, Florida
April 7, 2011 12:21 pm
Hello What’s That Bug! I love your site. I am the volunteer coordinator for the Palm Beach County Department of Environmental Resources Management – so I am outside a lot working with dedicated volunteers who want to protect the county’s natural resources. Obviously, we come into contact with lots of bugs. I always head to your website when I have a critter I can’t identify. I know this spider – golden-silk spider. I thought you might like this picture since you can clearly see the spider is spinning silk to fix her web. I watched her remove a twig that had fallen into her web – she cut it out and then proceeded to repair the area where the stick was. So cool! I also came across lots of crab-like spiny orb weaver spiders and orchard spiders – those guys were way too small to get a good photo. Keep up the great work!
Signature: Ann Mathews – Senior Environmental Analyst
Golden Silk Spider
Dear Ann,
Thank you so much for your kind letter. We really love your photo of a female Golden Silk Spider, Nephila clavipes.
2
¶ Posted 08 April 2011 § ‡ ° spider from the Dominican Republic
Location: Dominican Republic
March 18, 2011 1:25 pm
this was taken by a friend on March 15 2011 who is living in the Dominican Republic. It seems like a spider because of the web (though the web itself is quite dilapidated) but such small legs…maybe they’re folded in?
Signature: M. Arzt
Crablike Spiny Orbweaver
Dear M. Arzt,
Your spider is Gasteracantha cancriformis, commonly called the Spinybacked Orbweaver or Crablike Spiny Orbweaver, though BugGuide also includes this list of common names: “Crab Spider, Spiny Orbweaver Spider, Crab-like Orbweaver Spider, Crab-like Spiny Orbweaver Spider, Jewel Spider, Spiny-bellied Orbweaver, Jewel Box Spider, and Smiley Face Spider.“ The most common color variation for this species is white with black legs and markings and red spines.
2
¶ Posted 19 March 2011 § ‡ ° Found him on my peach tree
Location: Houston, TX
March 3, 2011 2:43 pm
Hi Bugman,
Should I be worried about this guy hanging out on my Sam Houston peach tree? Also, do you know his name?
Thanks!
Signature: PK
Long-Jawed Orbweaver
Dear PK,
You have nothing to be worried about. This is a Long-Jawed Orbweaver in the genus Tetragnatha. You can compare your image to this image on BugGuide.
Thank you for the quick reply. I never would have guessed it was a spider.
¶ Posted 05 March 2011 § ‡ ° Dangerous looking spider
Location: Melbourne CBD, Victoria, Australia
February 15, 2011 9:45 pm
When gardening in my inner suburbs Melbourne home, i found this spider. The purple and red colours screamed DANGER to me, and needless to say put me off my gardening endeavours. I was curious about what kind of spider this actually is and whether the DANGER instinct is correct. (Living in Australia means things that look dangerous usually are)
This spider was found in the middle of summer, amongst some very thick tree & vine growth. Had made itself quite a large web, and was about 8cm in length.
Sorry about the poor photo quality, it was as close as i was willing to get!
Signature: H.Spannah
Orbweaver
Dear H,
This is a harmless Orbweaver Spider. They can get quite large, and they might bite if provoked, but the bite is not considered to be significantly dangerous. Your spider might be in the genus Nephila, a group known as the Golden Silk Spiders. See the Brisbane Spiders Website.
Tanzanian Spider
Location: Morogoro and Mabibo of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
February 12, 2011 11:53 pm
I took this picture in 2008 while in Morogoro, Tanzania (a rural area). I still have no idea what it is, and have done a fair share of googling to figure it out. Three years later and still unsuccessful at finding an answer. I was about 2 inches away from this thing to take the picture, but it was worth the risk. If it helps at all, its web was strung under the shade of a tree.
I also wanted to know if you had any idea about the common types of tree spiders in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s capital. Unfortunately the pictures I had were useless in identification, but I can tell you this–they seemed to be in colonies, strung high in the trees together, and (i kid you not) roughly the size of my hand. Once again, I was unsuccessful in identifying the absolutely unbelievable creatures.
Thank you for your help. I have been curious for so long, and any comments are greatly appreciated.
Signature: Kendal
Horned Spider from Tanzania
Hi Kendal,
This is a Spiny Orbweaver, and we believe it may be in the genus Gasteracantha, though we need to do some additional research to verify that identification. We found a blog with postings of Horned Spiders that look quite similar, and they are in the genus Gasteracantha. ZipcodeZoo lists numerous species in the genus. Perhaps one of our readers will be able to properly identify the species. Your other request might be Golden Silk Spiders in the genus Nephila.
Spiny Orbweaver
¶ Posted 13 February 2011 § ‡ ° 
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