Spider of the Day

pressld2 · #1 (**permalink**) 15-11-2011, 09:51 PM

I can't believe there isn't already an "of the Day" thread for spiders!

Mine is the cellar spider on my bathroom ceiling this evening. Just a baby, he's holding his legs in a way that I've not noticed before, all eight of them in front of him...

Is this unusual or have I just been unobservant?

Dave P.

Lancashire Lad · #2 (**permalink**) 15-11-2011, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pressld2

....have I just been unobservant....

He's obviously doing an impression of a stick-man, standing behind a very large pair of spectacles.

Regards,
Mike.

pressld2 · #3 (**permalink**) 16-11-2011, 08:17 AM

Oh that's brilliant Mike!

I hadn't noticed but now you've pointed it out it's obvious.

Dave P.

MattPrince · #4 (**permalink**) 16-11-2011, 11:30 AM

Excellent idea Dave - could one of the mods make this a sticky?

Here's one of mine (technically from the weekend) a distinctive linyphid identifiable with a x10 lens (females at least) due to the exceptionally long epigyne.

Helophora insignis or broad-tongued spiderlet.

Found inverted under a holly leaf, 3' up from the ground in Abbeyford woods, then the next day another female in damp woodland near Hollacombe.

Both in Devon.

Apologies about the poor quality of the grab - but at least you can just about make out the extended epigyne..

MattPrince · #5 (**permalink**) 03-12-2011, 08:48 AM

I do hope I'm not going to be the only person posting!

Here is one, technically from last weekend, a tip-off to this budding arachanologist that there was a easy to see species just 200 yards from my house...

Larinioides sclopetarius, the bridge spider, millers crossing, Exeter.

pressld2 · #6 (**permalink**) 03-12-2011, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattPrince

I do hope I'm not going to be the only person posting!

I'm sure you won't Matt, but November was probably not the best of months for me to start the thread! My garden is currently "arachnically challenged" although there are always cellar spiders in my garage.

It'll busy up again in the spring I'm sure.

Dave P.

MattPrince · #7 (**permalink**) 03-12-2011, 10:02 PM

Glad to hear that - but I wouldn't let the winter stop play. There are still plenty of spiders in warmer places.

Today my wife lifted up a tussock down by the sea, to find it swarming with woodlice, small woodlouse spiders and episinus angulatus - an oddly shaped spider that makes an H shaped web. Nearby I found leptyhphantes minutus an immature tegeneria and an adult male stemonyphantes lineatus (which confused the hell out of me because it was lined with pink and looked a lot like a candystripe but with long palps) .

Also plenty of pseudoscorpions and little linyphids to be found by sifting leaf litter...

Cheers,
Matt

UB4 gardener · #8 (**permalink**) 04-12-2011, 10:29 AM

i think there is only a small percentage that actually actively look for our 8-legged friends. i personally would do more if but it's the microscope work that puts me off. i'm very much an armchair naturalist when it comes to getting things down to species level. but not so much spider of the day as garden friends. last year i put up a plastic shed in the garden and the outside has been fantastic for spiders. Philodromus margaritatus being the highlight. I also enjoyed this theridion story over the weeks.apologies for picture quality. small subject, shaking hands and webs making it difficult for me. top row is mum and dad, 2nd row is where they lived and mum with eggs and lastly the fruits of thier labours.

nikolai_avenger · #9 (**permalink**) 04-12-2011, 01:30 PM

Well it's not for the want of looking on my part! Not much doing on the spider front round our way. Will post as soon as I find one!

MattPrince · #10 (**permalink**) 05-12-2011, 11:45 AM

Personally I like the pictures of the living beasties myself (it is not a good example, but one of the reasons my helophora picture above is so awful is because of the reflection of the glass tube the living specimen was in).

However as any arachnologist will tell you, some species cannot be identified alive, and without a solid determination, distributional data cannot be taken.
So I, personally, don't mind seeing the odd microscope shot - but I can understand how that would not be popular on a general thread like this.

Anyway, spider of the day for me so far is steatoda grossa, female, trespassing in the gents at work - not sure I'll shout about it around here though - "false black widow in the toilets" ~ will probably invoke undue hysteria.