Spiders, Ticks, and Mites
Funnel-web spider; Agelenopsis
spp. We found this large funnel web while hiking on the Lake Trail in Big Ridge State Park. The spider's funnel opening was about the size of a silver dollar! My husband found an insect to put into the opening to draw out the spider. Within a few seconds she pounced on the insect and began to wrap it with silk before biting it and injecting her venom. Check out the size of those fangs! All spiders are venomous to a degree, their venom is used to immobilize and then to partially digest their prey. In Tennessee only the Black Widow and Brown Recluse are dangerously venomous. Animals that are venomous inject their poison by either biting or stinging. To help remember this, think of the pointed bottom end of a "V" as being a single stinger and the 2 top ends as fangs. Poison has to be eaten or touched and absorbed through the skin. Think of a "P" as being round like the end of your finger or tongue. Ladybugs, Monarch caterpillars and butterflies and Poison Dart Frogs are poisonous. Spiders are Arachnids, they have 8 legs and 2 body parts (head and cephalothorax). The Australian Funnel Web spider is extremely dangerous.
Close-up of a Black Widow's spinneret with a strand of web. Note the tiny hairs on the inside of her rear "foot". My spider finally caught one of the flies I had put in her enclosure! It seems Black Widows must have poor vision and have to detect their prey by feeling the movement on their web. Another fly I had put in with her previously walked right in front of her and she never noticed it! This fly got caught in her web and she will soon dine on it! Kenny and I named her "Arachne" since we've had her for 3 months and we've become attached to her (as long as she doesn't become physically attached to us, we'll have a successful relationship!). :)
Brown Recluse; Loxosceles reclusa
Knoxville, TN August 21, 2008 Thanks to Jessica, a brave reader of my website and spider enthusiast, for supplying me with this spider! She caught her in her apartment and kept her for me. I have been wanting to get a photo of a live Brown Recluse for years! Fortunately, the spider could not climb the slippery sides of the plastic critter box I had her in. If the Black Widow makes me nervous, this spider really gives me the jitters to photograph! This is one of the 2 dangerously venomous spiders in North America. The venom is necrotic, causing death of the affected tissue near the bite. This spider is pretty easy to identify because of the distinctive "violin" pattern on the cephalothorax. They are one of the few spiders that have 6 eyes, arranged in pairs, most spiders have 8 eyes. Of course, not many people are willing to get close enough to a Brown Recluse to look at its eyes! :) Brown Recluse information
A Garden Spider spinning silk around an insect. Spiders can control the type of silk they spin depending on the function it will serve. This wide band of several strands is different than the sticky, prey-catching strands used in web building.
Spiny-backed Orb Weaver Spider; Gasteracantha
spp. Milton, FL August 31, 2008 I nearly walked into this spider's web while touring my parents' yard. What an interesting pattern she has on her abdomen.
(Lactrodectus mactans)! The bite of the male, unlike that of his "spouse", is harmless. Male spiders have large pedipalps which are used for mating (I won't go into the details since this is a family-friendly site! If you are interested, check out a biology book.). I tell my students if a spider has what looks like boxing gloves near the head, it is a male. Kids love being able to tell the difference between a female and male animals. (But the boys are disappointed when they find out that male bees, wasps, ants, and hornets can't sting!)
spp.) ready to pounce on an unsuspecting small bee or fly. Thanks to the folks at the Mantidforum for setting me straight on the stilt bug, I thought it was a thread-legged bug. I guess since there are over 1 million named insects and the fact that I'm not an entomologist, I'm due to make a few mistakes! :) I will always try to rectify my mistake if I can verify what someone else says.
Golden Silk Spider; Nephila clavipes
Milton, FL August 30, 2008 Wow, what a beautiful spider this is! I found her in the woods in my parents' yard. The local people call them "Banana spiders". I tried to measure her with my finger, she was about 3" long from the tip of her front legs to the tip of her hind legs! The only other time I had seen one of these spiders was in the Everglades several years ago.
"Cross Spider" Neoscona crucifera Milton, FL August 31, 2008 We watched this spider spin her web on a friend's porch. It is amazing how fast they can put such a complicated web together. Many orb weavers spin a new web every night, eating the old one in the morning. I can't find a common name for this spider; I'm calling it a "Cross spider" since crucifera means cross. Notice the cross shape on the top of her abdomen.
Spined Micrathena Spider; Micrathena gracilis
Micrathena Spiders are among the strangest-looking spiders you might encounter in the woods. The abdomen has stripes and spikes, probably as a deterrent to birds. I'm an "arachnophile," I like spiders, they are so interesting! My husband had to put his hat behind the web so I could focus my camera on the spider.
Black Widow; Lactrodectus mactans
WARNING: Highly venomous! April 24, 2008 You know you have found a true friend when you get a call and she says she has captured a female Black Widow spider for you! My friend Diana found this spider in the crawlspace under her house and captured her by coaxing her onto a Swiffer (c) duster! Now that was imaginative! Getting a photo of a highly agitated and highly venomous spider is not an easy task! I tried three different containers until I found something that had a big enough opening I could put my macro lens into but she she couldn't climb out. A slippery-sided glass goldfish bowl worked great! Black Widows are highly venomous so I had to be very careful. I used a pair of tongs to move her from one container to another. These spiders have a neurotoxic venom which is rarely fatal when they bite. However, the venom can cause severe pain. Black Widows are often found near homes in dark corners of basements, under flower pots, wood piles, in water meters, in porch light fixtures, etc. They are cobweb weavers and make a messy nest. Despite their foreboding name, these lovely spiders rarely eat their mate! For more information regarding Black Widow spiders, visit this website: Black Widow Information
When we came home from a week-long vacation in early July 2008, Kenny looked at the Black Widow's container and exclaimed, "You won't believe what Arachne has done!" It didn't take too much imagination to think what a female spider might do! I received her in late April and she has not been with another spider since, so she had mated before Diana caught her. I guess the large number of flies that Kenny caught for her before we left gave her the burst of nutrition she needed to lay her eggs. I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do with her "little bundles of joy" when they make their entrance into the world! :-0 She is highly protective of the egg case.
Black & Yellow Argiope; Garden Spider; Writing Spider; Argiope aurantia
This is my favorite spider! Garden Spiders are beautiful, they build large, interesting webs. This is the spider of Charlotte's Web fame, so it can't be too bad! :) I photographed this one at my parents' house in Florida.
This photo shows the great difference in size between the male (smaller) and female Golden Silk Spiders. I noticed 5 males on her web, quite a little harem she had! :) This guy seemed to be the most persistent of them all. One other male had just 5 legs, I guess he was a "survivor" of previous mating attempts.
Arrowshaped Micrathena; Micrathena sagitatta
I think these are the most interesting looking spiders, it almost looks like a creature from a science fiction movie! This one was seen along a trail at the University of Tennessee Arboretum. This is a lower view of the spider (I needed a leaf to use a backdrop for focusing).
Black Widow; Lactrodectus mactans
WARNING: Highly venomous! April 24, 2008 This is the distinctive red hourglass pattern on the lower abdomen of a female black widow. Getting this photo was even more difficult than getting the top view! I had to carefully transfer her into a petri dish, flip it over, focus and snap the picture before she righted herself. This was one time she did not like being upside down!
Sometime during the wee hours of Aug. 3, 2008 the Black Widow's first egg case hatched. When I saw them their case was on the floor of their enclosure (a sealed plastic corsage box), presumably bitten off by their mother after they hatched. I assume the spiderlings with the larger abdomens are females and the thinner ones are males. I was surprised that they were orange with a black dot on the abdomen, just the opposite of what I had assumed they would look like! That's what makes studying nature interesting, you often learn your preconceived notions aren't always correct. Later today I will release these little critters far away from civilization so they can live, but not hurt anyone.
Garden Spiders are big and beautiful, they are one of my favorite arachnids! Their bright yellow and black markings are warning signals to birds not to eat them. The zigzag lines on the web may be an attractant for insects or they may be to help repel birds. I've had students tell me, "If a Writin' Spider writes your name in its web, you'll die!" My response is a smile and I say, "Well, unless your name is 'ZZZZZZZ', you don't have to worry about it!"
Dewdrop Spider; Argyrodes elevatus
Milton, FL August 30, 2008 I first noticed this little silver spider as a white spot on the photos I had taken of the Golden Silk Spider. When I looked for the cause of the spots, I saw this one and several others like it. Thanks to Eric at Bugguide for identifying her for me! He also told me that these spiders are "cleptoparasites", they have an interesting, and very risky, habit of living on other spiders' webs and stealing their prey from the often very large webs.
Orchard Orbweaver; Leucauge venusta
I photographed this pretty Spider with red spots in my parents' yard in Florida. When I moved in with my camera she turned up her abdomen to expose the red spots.
