Crab spiders are much like jumping spiders — they don’t build a permanent web, and instead go hunting for their prey. Crab spider have smaller eyes than jumpers (relatively), and the eyes appear to extend out of a “hood” on the head. Their first two pairs of legs are much longer than their last two,…
Tag: spider
Hamataliwa Grisea
Admission time here: I used to think that jumping spiders were the epitome of cuteness, but that was before I met my first lynx spider. This is Hamataliwa grisea, a tiny (1cm) lynx spider which suffers from a scandalous lack of common name. Bugguide.net contributors have called it a “bark lynx spider” and “not a…
Unidentified – Spiders
Do you know these spiders? Please help 🙂 These photos are too good not to share, but I have no idea who’s in them!
Metacyrba Punctata
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!”)…
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…
Twin Flagged Jumping Spider
Wikipedia wants to tell me that the twin-flagged jumping spider’s name comes from those white marks on its cephalothorax, but I’d put my money on the name coming from those bright white pedipalps, which look like little flags waving around as she moves. This glorious little twin flagged jumping spider, Anasaitis canosa, is almost invisible…
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…
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…
Golden Silk Orb Weaver
These highly impressive spiders are brilliantly colored, very big (two to three inches across), and like to hang right at face-height in nearly invisible webs strung between branches. They are also known as banana spiders, although they do not like to hang out in bunches of fruit — they just are the color (and, it…
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…