UNIDENTIFIED SPIDER FROM ECUADOR IN NORTH CAROLINA
Sat, Nov 8, 2008 at 9:50 AM
RARE FIND: SPIDER FROM ECUADOR IN WILMINGTON, NC/STILL ALIVE!
On my car antenna I found this spider, looks like a crab/star it has a bright yellow shell with indented black dots on it and the coccoon web is a neon yellow green. Its small but fast. I did find a picture on internet of it and said it from the Montane rainforest in Mindo, Ecuador. What is it doing in Wilmington, North Carolina. Should I save it or kill it what?
Annette Forestieri
Wilmington, NC (on my car now alive)
Crablike Spiny Orb Weaver
Hi Annette,
This is a Crablike Spiny Orb Weaver, Gasteracantha cancriformis, and it is a local species for you.
Thanks for replying so quick, but did you see the picture> I looked up and found it on science photo library # Z460/245 Dr. Morley Read from there says its from Ecuador… OK I looked up but how come it looks the one they say it from ecuador? it looks the same exceipt for the color?
thanks Daniel….for the info
Hi again Annette,
The species may also be found in Ecuador, but according to BugGuide, the North American range includes North Carolina.
Unknown large spider
Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 5:41 PM
I have used your site for a few years now and love it. A great resource. I found this spider today (Nov. 2, 2008) near the four corners/Monument Valley, close to Mexican Hat, Utah. It was larger than a Black Widow, about the size of a half dollar. And as you can see in the photo it has a large abdomen, maybe the size of a small grape. Very strong web. The closest I found on your site is a banded orb weaver but this is not quite the same and we saw no zig zag in its web.
Brandt
Mexican Hat, Utah
Banded Orb Weaver
Hi Brandt,
Sorry about the delay, but between our convention trip with students and the elections, we fell behind in responses. We are finally returning to older letters we never opened. We agree with your first assumption that this is a Banded Orb Weaver, Argiope trifasciata. Often the markings of desert creatures are lighter to better reflect light, preventing overheating. BugGuide indicates that the stabilimentum of the web is less prominent than the Golden Orb Weaver, but some information on BugGuide explaining this is truncated. This truly is a stunning individual.
Please ID this spider!
Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 3:19 PM
We found this spider in our garage in Cincinnati, OH about a week ago. (late Oct. early Nov.). I dont think it had rained or anything but it is not a spider that I have ever seen in the area before. Its body w/o the legs is a little smaller than 1/2 inch. If you need any other info or pics just email me. Thanks for any help!
Mikey
Cincinnati, OH
Marbled Orb Weaver
Hi Mikey,
What a positively gorgeous Marbled Orb Weaver, Araneus marmoreus, a highly variable species whose many variations can be viewed on BugGuide.
Spider
Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 7:34 PM
This spider was spotted out in the middle of the afternoon on 10/28. When i was trying to take his picture he retreated into what seemed to his home. I found it unusual that he had no web and but rather a cocoon like house. I have tried looking through different Florida Spider web sights and field guides but thus far have been unsuccessful in identifying it. I would really appreciate your help. Cheers!
Erin A.
Pine Island, SW Florida
Regal Jumper
Hi Erin,
Several days ago we posted images of a Regal Jumping Spider, Phidippus regius, in and out of its tent. That photo was a different color variation of the species, and your photos are a wonderful addition to our archive of this variable species from Florida that builds a retreat for itself when it needs shelter or when it is threatened. There is a slightly darker version of your individual’s pattern posted to BugGuide, and you can also see the great variety of colorations and patterns for this species.
Regal Jumper retreats to tent
Green lynx spider eats bumble bee
Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 7:35 AM
Hi Bugman. Maybe this is the true reason for the bee shortage. We saw this food chain demonstration while hiking Moss Park in Orlando, Fl. on Nov.1st. The sun was setting and so we also saw gorgeous orb weavers busy spinning their webs. None of my past submissions have been posted so since this is your favorite spider, I hope my photo will make it to your website. By the way, I impressed my husband when I blurted out “oh, that’s a green lynx spider”! (just a little identifcation I picked up from my visits to your site). Thanks for the great website.
Elizabeth from Orlando
Orlando, Fl.
Green Lynx Spider eats Bumble Bee
Hi Elizabeth,
What a marvelous photo of our favorite spider, the Green Lynx Spider, Peucetia viridans.
Spider Identification
Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 12:14 PM
I found this spider in my yard after running into his/her intricately made web that ran across the entry to my front door. What on earth is it? Thanks! Love the site by the way! 
Lauren F.
Cotati, CA
Cross Spider
Hi Lauren,
Your spider is a harmless Cross Spider, Araneus diadematus, a species introduced from Europe and found in both the eastern and western U.S. You can find many images and more information on BugGuide. A bit of trivia for you concerns Anita and Arabella, the names of the first two spiders sent into space. In 1973, Anita and Arabella, female Cross Spiders, were sent into space aboard Skylab 3 as an experiment to observe how gravity affected web spinning. Both Anita and Arabella died of dehydration during the mission, but their bodies are preserved at the Smithsonian Institution for posterity. You man visit About.com to read more about Spiders in Space.
.
Wolf Spider?
Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 12:36 PM
Is this a kind of wolf spider? It was on the floor of an old garage and moved very quickly. It was almost the size of a compact disc with legs outreached. Body was about size of bottle cap.
JR
USA, northeast
White Banded Fishing Spider
Hi JR,
This is a Dolomedes Fishing Spider, not a Wolf Spider. Fishing Spiders are in the Nursery Web Spider group, and like Wolf Spiders, they are hunting spiders and not snare web building spiders. We believe your specimen is a White Banded Fishing Spider, Dolomedes albineus, based on an image posted to BugGuide. Your location, USA, northeast, is a bit vague. BugGuide lists sightings as far north as Delaware, but that doesn’t mean the species is unknown in New England. If this is not the White Banded Fishing Spider, it is another member of the genus Dolomedes.
Thanks Daniel, very interesting! I am sorry about the vague location. I
found it in Norridgewock, Maine, about 40 minutes north from Augusta and 1.5
hours north from Portland.
Thanks again, Jim
What is this bug?
Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 3:03 AM
Found this bug drying out on a brick in the Mazzaron region of Spain after a rain shower. Was wondering if you could identify.
William
Mazzaron, Spain
Female Wolf Spider with Egg Sac from Spain
Hi William,
This is a female Wolf Spider, but we are not certain of the species. Female Wolf Spiders drag their egg sacs around with them and once the spiderlings hatch, the mother spider will carry the young on her back for several days until they disperse. This care method probably has the advantage of distributing the spiderlings in a larger area because of the mobility of the adult.
Six Legged Spider?
Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 5:12 PM
Can you identify this spider, and is it harmful? I thought it was odd becuase it has only 6 hairy legs. It’s leg span is about 4 inches. I did not kill it, because I figured to be that size it must be eating a lot of other bugs. I have attached a photo. Thanks . . . Joan
Joan
Punta Gorda, FL
Huntsman Spider
Hi Joan,
You are a good person, and wise to not have killed this male Huntsman Spider, Heteropoda venatoria. Huntsman Spiders are also called Banana Spiders or Giant Crab Spiders and they are nocturnal hunting spiders that do not spin webs, preferring to hunt their prey. They are valued in many areas because they consume cockroaches.
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for your reply. I am surpised that you did not comment on his 6 legs. Isn’t that unusual for a spider? I thought spiders generally have 8 legs. I have attached a photo of another spider taken last year about this time. At the time I had identified it as a Huntsman by comparing it to photos on the website. Now I am not sure if that was corrrect. It was about the same size, but looked different from the 6 legged guy. It wasn’t as hairy. It also behaved differently. Last year’s spider moved very quickly if approached, whereas the 6 legged guy stayed put, and let me take lots of pictures.
Thanks again. Since moving to Florida, I have been fasinated by the spiders . . .
Joan
Huntsman Spider female
Hi Joan,
The six legged specimen is a male and your new photo is a female Huntsman Spider. They have sexual dimorphism, meaning the sexes have pronounced visual differences. In some animals, the differences are so pronounced that they appear to be different species. Often spiders lose legs, and occasionally, if they are young enough, the legs partially regenerate. Not so with your male Huntsman.
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Posted 04 November 2008
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Tiny pale green spider on forest floor…
Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 9:27 AM
I was examining a scrape on the forest floor, looking for hair when I found this tiny little spider! It coudnt be bigger than a centimeter across the longest point (wish I had had a coin with me for size reference). It walked sideways like a crab. When disturbed it pulled its legs in and tried to look inconspicuous. After I got done taking pictures it crawled to the underside of a leaf and hid.
Dana
Athens, Georgia
Crab Spider
Hi Dana,
This is a Crab Spider in the family Thomisidae. We are not certain of the genus or species, but we would hesitate a guess at the genus Misumenops as evidenced by images posted to BugGuide. Crab Spiders do not build hunting webs. They ambush their prey using camouflage techniques.
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.
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Posted 26 October 2008
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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.
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. ”
What kind of spider is this?
Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 8:03 AM
I found these two similar spiders on different sides of my house spinning traditional circular webs.
David Brownell
Lake Chapala, Mexico
Spined Micrathena
Hi David,
What a gorgeous photo of a Spined Micrathena, Micrathena gracilis. In addition to Mexico, this species is also found in much of North America.
Lime-green ‘V’ spider…
Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 12:10 AM
At the end of a camping trip in Rock Island, TN, we were taking down our tents when I found this little critter. Originally, he was on the tent, but I moved him onto a nearby tree with a leaf so he wouldn’t get squished amongst our packing. I’ve never seen this species before and I was just curious as to what type of spider he/she is.
I also wanted to mention I love your site. Through it, I’ve figured out what baby wheel bugs, house centipedes, and female dobsonflies are!
Much thanks,
Sarah Bowers
between middle and east TN
Arrowshaped Micrathena
Hi Sarah,
This little beauty is a female Arrowshaped Micrathena, Micrathena sagittata. It is a harmless orbweaver that is found in wooded areas.
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