Spider Costumes

One thing I'm learning: Spiders really know how to hide. Their costumes are much more subtle than the average Halloween attire.

These are the only spiders that regularly flaunt themselves in plain sight.  Most are a lot more subtle.

Take Dark Legs (a female zygiella x-notata). Can you see her up there? She has her legs resting on her "doorbell," a line of thread leading to the center of her web, but she herself gets to stay out of site.

How is that? Just a bunch of twigs, right? No spider at all.

That better? All that's really visible is the legs, just so long as you know where to look.

And here is Little Brown, an Araneus montereyensis, during the day, perched by the side of a twig, pretending to be a bit of bark or a drift of debris.

See? There she is!

Even larger spiders, like the Neoscona, can be hard to find. Just a lump in the brick:

Isn't it?

Little Brown During the Day

Ha! Finally managed to find her during the day (at least, I'm almost sure this is the same spider). Here she is, resting under a leaf.

In addition to dropping down and pretending to be a piece of bark when I try to photograph her at night, she has the habit of spinning her web in a slightly different spot each night, and she generally destroys most of it by morning. She's camera shy.  Silly of her because, as you can see, she's an elegant little beauty with many shades of brown, gold stripes on her leg, and understated striping on the body.

The picture, by the way, is larger than the actual spider. Near as I can tell, she'd about cover the eraser end of a no. 2 pencil with her legs outstretched.

Edit: I was excited to finally have a daylight picture of her and posted it before hearing from the bugguide people. She's almost certainly a Araneus montereyensis. I'm going to keep an eye on her and see what she does.

Right now, she's all curled up under a leaf, legs tucked in, doing her best "I'm just a fleck of detritus" look.

Little Brown, Nightitme Images

I've been watching this little one for several days now. She's about the size of a pencil-end, legs included, and she's very nervous and very good at pretending to be a bit of bark or odd debris. If I so much as brush the leaves she drops down on a line and hangs still, or, if she's close enough, hides under a leaf.

Tentative ID via bugguide.net is that she's an Araneus bispinosus, but I'm instructed to keep watching--and will. I'm curious!

She's also lovely with her rough, nubbly back and shades of brown. She spins a slightly puzzle-piece looking orb web, not the tidy rounds of the barn spiders, but not the rough, ramshackle webs of the widows or cellar spiders.

Edit: Got some clearer daylight pics of her dorsal area. Seems she's probably a Araneus montereyensis. Sooo much to learn!