What’s she doing in there?
Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 7:47 AM
I happened accross this little spider hiding this morning. I am in north central Florida (Branford) and we had our first freeze overnight. I was taking some photos this morning and found what looked like a cocoon but there was a spider hanging out of it. My curiosity has been working at me and I had to go back and coerce the spider out to learn a little more. I got it to come out and identified it as a female regal jumping spider. I have read that they do make tents but I can’t find any photos of their structure. Is this her tent or did she commandeer some poor cocoon to get out of the cold this morning?
Amy
Branford, FL
Regal Jumping Spider in Tent
Hi Amy,
We needed to research this tent making with regards to the female Regal Jumping Spider, Phidippus regius. We found images on BugGuide that showed a female in a tent in Orange County Florida. This tent is just a shelter for protection and probably helped your spider excape the frost. This is a highly variable species, and BugGuide shown numerous photos of the color variations. You should be commended on your identification.
Regal Jumping Spider
Thanks so much for your response, I have admired your site for quite some time and I am pleased to be a part of it now. Aside from your site, I also get spider info from the book Florida’s Fabulous Spiders. That is where I found the ID for this spider. The Florida’s Fabulous Series is no substitute for good old field guides, but they are great for learning interesting facts about some common species. Thanks again for the info,
Amy
Whip Spider
Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 9:39 PM
My friends came over for breakfast the other day and while I was talking I noticed a little spider hanging off the side of a plant pot. I told my friends but as soon as they turned around the spider coiled up its legs and looked exactly like a small stick. They thought I was mad! But eventually they saw it move and became very interested in the little fellow.
It’s about 2 to 3 cm long and I think it looks a little bit like a miniature face-hugger form the film Alien!
Today I searched online and discovered that it is a whip spider. I know that the pictures I took of it aren’t too amazing, but it was so difficult to get a picture of it with its legs spread out that I thought images of them un-camouflaged would be quite rare.
Bonnie
Melbourne, Australia
Whip Spider
Hi Bonnie,
Thanks for contributing photos of the fascinating Whip Spider, Argyrodes colubrinus, to our website archives. We are linking to the Australian Museum Online website that states: “Whip Spiders get their name from their elongate, worm-like body shape – up to about 20 mm long but only about 1 mm wide. They are common in forest habitats and can readily be seen in gardens on summer nights, suspended on delicate silk lines in spaces among shrubbery.
They specialise in feeding on wandering spiders, usually juveniles. The Whip Spider sits at the top of a few long silk threads that run downs below it among foliage. When a wandering spider walks up one of these handy silk `bridges’ it gets a nasty surprise. The waiting Whip Spider uses toothed bristles on the end segment of the last leg to comb out swathes of entangling sticky silk from its spinnerets. These rapidly entangle the struggling victim so that it cannot escape. “
Whip Spider
Orb weaver nookie
Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 10:57 AM
Just wanted to share a picture of the two Orb weavers we shared our patio with this summer. We live in Charleston, SC. We named them Lilith and Frasier. Unfortunately, Lilith disappeared about a week after this photo was taken.
Amy
Charleston, SC
Golden Silk Spider Courtship
Hi Amy,
What an amazing photo of a pair of Golden Silk Spiders, Nephila clavipes. We are not sure who was named Lilith, but the larger of the pair is the female. We would think that it would have been the smaller male that vanished.
German Spider
Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 3:56 PM
Hi, WTB!
I would say that I’m a great fan, but I know that you all probably know that whoever sends you photos has to at least have an interest in your site. So yeah, another of the hundred fans of the website. Great Job!
But onto my story:
I went to Germany this summer, and While I was at Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, our group went below the castle to see a grotto. Inside, when everyone was looking at the pictures and sculptures put there by the king, yours truly was taking snapshots of the spiders living around the cave floor. This one in particular caught my eye. The light from the flash casts an awful glare in one photo, but the others I think show it pretty well. This spider was large in my mind at the time, but now that I seriously think about it, the arachnid couldn’t have been bigger than three inches stretched out.
Although, that’s why I’m asking experts: you.
Thank you much in advance, and I hope that you’ll be able to identify this critter!
Zachary Boyden
Bavaria, Germany
Cobweb Spider from Bavaria
Hi Zachary,
Thanks for your kind letter. We are not able to identify your spider species, nor the genus, but we are confident that this is a Cobweb Spider or Comb Footed Spider in the family Theridiidae. Most spiders in this family are harmless, but it also includes the Widows and the notorious Australian Redback Spider.
Black spider with Black and white banded legs.
Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 12:29 AM
I found two spiders in my house today.. (so-cal) I’ve found them outside before.. we also have black widows around.. anyways, this spider is black with what looks like black and yellow (or white) bands on it’s legs.. the legs are pretty long.. and it’s not hairy.. it’s not that big.. smaller than the widows.. im not sure what it is or if it’s poisionous.. please let me know.. it’s not that picture, it just resembles it.. maybe a little smaller..
Thanks, Tiffany
Geographic Location of Bug: Kitchen and Bathroom..
Golden Orb Weaver
Hi Tiffany,
With all due respect, “kitchen and bathroom” was not really what we had in mind on our form that requests a geographic location. It would be far more helpful to know the name of the city or state or country where you found the spider, but upon rereading your letter, we see that you indicate Southern California. Your spider is a relatively easy identification for us. This is Argiope aurantia, a Golden Orb Weaver, but it also has numerous other common names. All spiders are poisonous, but the Golden Orb Weaver does not pose a threat were it to bite. Since it is a large spider, a bite might be painful, but it would result in little more that slight swelling and irritation. Upon inserting your photo into this posting, we realized that the individual spider in the photo was not photographed in your kitchen or bathroom. That may just nullify our identification. Sending a photo other than the actual specimen you want identified is a dicey venture. Also, we only like to post images from the originators of the photos, because that implies permission to post. We are really hoping the internet police don’t come knocking at our door (or flooding our website with demands to remove the image at once) but we will tempt fate since we invested so much time in creating this posting. We also were happy as we just posted an image of a Gambian Golden Silk Spider and spoke about the Golden Orb Weaver in that posting.
1
Help identifying African spider
Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 10:04 AM
Hi Bugman,
I took this photo in The Gambia last week and am having trouble identifying it. It looks a little like the Golden Orb Weaver but the marking look a little different.
Any ideas?
Jodie Wood
Gambia
Golden Silk Spider from Gambia
Hi Jodie,
Your spider is a Golden Silk Spider in the Genus Nephila. There is currently a photo making the rounds on the internet of an Australian Nephila species, probably Nephila maculata, that has captured a bird, a Chestnut Breasted Mannikin, in its web. Several readers have sent us that photo but we don’t publish third party photos unknowingly without getting the photographer’s permission. Telegraph.UK.co calls that spider a Golden Orb Weaver, but using common names can cause confusion since that common name refers to a different species, Argiope aurantia, in the U.S. We like Golden Silk Spider since the color of the silk is really Golden. Wikipedia refers to the Nephila species as the Golden Silk Orb-Weavers. There was an effort at one time to weave the silk of the Nephila species into fabric because of its strength. The strength of the silk allows the Golden Silk Spider to occasionally capture a small bird. The silk of the American Golden Orb Weaver is also quite strong, and we have photos submitted to our site of an Argiope aurantia feeding on a hummingbird. The only American species of Nephila is Nephila clavipes, also called a Banana Spider, but that common name also refers to other species of spiders. All we can say for certain regarding your lovely photo is that it is in the genus Nephila, and that we prefer the common name Golden Silk Spider.
Sea urchin spider??
Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 10:08 AM
Hi Daniel. What the heck? I found this little guy on one of my house plants. I did not see this spider on your site and I tried looking on What’s that Bug and couldn’t find it. I’m sure it is on that site but I just haven’t gotten the hang of WTB. I get as far as spiders, and look at each group, but I don’t know how to expand it farther.
I just brought the plant in from outdoors not too long ago. I’m in Florence, MA.
Elizabeth
Spider Riddled with Fungus
Hi Elizabeth,
This looks like one of the Ant Mimic Jumping Spiders, and it is riddled with fungus. We cannot imagine that the spider was alive when you found it, but if it was, it was doomed to an imminent and not too distant death.
How right you are! It IS dead! And here we just thought it was being so cooperative. I did not know that spiders could get fungus and die. Of course, I know nothing else about spiders either, so no surprise. Thank you so much for a great website.
Betsy
Aloe Vera Nesting Spider
Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 5:13 PM
Hi Bugman, I stumbled across a good sized spider in my Aloe Vera plant. It is amber colored with darker ribbing on the legs, and cream and tan spikes on the back. I also have amber colored fangs. It seemed fairly docile, but I didn’t get too close.
Thanks!
To Ben, Ashley, and Elijah
Coastal San Diego
Argiope argentata
Hi Ben, Ashley and Elija,
Your spider is a Silver Garden Spider, Argiope argentata. This species is found in California, the Gulf states and the Southeast US, and south into Mexico and Central America. The spiders in the genus Argiope are quite docile in that they spin an orb web and remain in the web. The web is spun anew daily and the webs often contain a stabilimentum. The stabilimentum is a zigzag pattern woven into the web, and according to BugGuide: “The function of the stabilimentum is not fully understood. Hypotheses are; that it stabilizes the web, or makes it more apparent to birds which will thus not fly into and wreck it, or it reflects light to attract insect prey, or perhaps most likely helps to camouflage the spider in the web. ”
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