odestosparrows's Favourites

A small Orbweaver huddled up on the underside of my Cosmos. Never seen one like this before. A little smaller than my pinky nail. Yellow abdomen, legs were tucked in but looked black and yellow striped. Didn't move at all as I took the photos.

This is the same spider seen here - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/133505471. I checked on it earlier in evening of this observation (about 10pm) and it had a mothing rig similar to one pictured in original observation. While I was watching it, it began pulling up the down hanging strands. Not wanting to disturb it too much, I left. When I came back to check on it about 3AM, this is how I found it. Also, found another about 100' from this one (recorded in separate observation). on Hackberry. trail to creek th. fm

Along the Grand. Spotted by a Sharp-eyed Spouse. Wasn't sure what it was until looked at images more closely. Kinda amazing. A Bolas Spider!

Notice the remnants from other silk anchoring sites on adjacent leaves. A daily resting place? It was fastened to leaf quite securely. Did not wiggle / move when I poked at it a bit.

Took a long, hard look to convince ourselves this was a spider and not poop or a gall. Behold the bolas spider, perfumier and ropemaster.

Here's my trace through Levi (2003):

1. Abdomen with humps
2. Abdomen with only one pair of humps
3. Carapace with median tuburcles smaller than horns
4. Carapace sides with few or no tuburcles
5. North America
6. North America
7. [northeastern US; the only other option in range down the other branch is M. cornigera, but the range is more southerly and the tuburcles look more pronounced to me]

Also, I invite you to gaze lovingly upon the adorable figure 153 at http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4290852