I do apologize for the lack of blogging this week- I’ve been busy with lab work. Until things free up, here’s a spider:
She set up shop across our back stairs at the perfect height to snare a human. Ambitious!
I took this photo for the forensics folks in case we go missing.
Haha! Nice! With all your blog moves in the past few months, who can keep up with your goings on anyways?
Yeah, I can barely even find my own blog anymore.
Get your other half to fill in Alex
Very nice spider! She has beautiful legs 🙂 Neoscona crucifera?
Now at our region the orb weavers are in overwhelming majority on the meadows, each species has a slightly different scheme for building their web and I adore watching them from a distance and trying to find our which web belongs to which species. On misty morning they look really cool!
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_klUt9vMhaQk/TJtAWwx1bnI/AAAAAAAAB3k/aLbT1ZiuLJg/PICT7435.jpg
Monika — Your picture — WOW!
There are orb weavers in wooded areas, as well. Around here (southern 3/4 of eastern US), some are so abundant that summer hikers go forth armed with sticks to break the webs that would otherwise stick unpleasantly to their faces. And up in the tree canopy, green Araneus species, rarely seen by us ground dwellers, abound. Indeed, in some places, these common leaf-colored orb weavers are the primary prey of mud-dauber wasps (Sceliphron spp.).
Neoscona seem to love buildings — I’ve never seen one anywhere else.
Thanks for the little trip into the world of spiders, Alex.
The woods around here are filled with female Neoscona spp. (mostly crucifera and domiciliorum). They’ve grown to outlandish proportions by now, and their webs are stacked six-to-ten in a row and cover mind-bogglingly large areas. James got it right: most people I see carry large “spider sticks” with them, though I admit I love to see people walk into webs because it always leads to the spider dance (arms waving and brushing at every body part while the person spins in a circle and screams “IS IT ON ME!?”).
Interesting aboout Neoscona, Jason. What is their microhabitat in your woods?
Here, it seems Micrathena and Verrucosa are the primary web-across-the-path builders.
hi Alex,
I liked the picture of the spider on your blog.
Where does this spider live?
I couldn’t find it in a guide to Pennsylvania although I did see a barn funnel spider.