Spider Byte

The blue mud dauber may be a bit of a blackguard in one sense, but in another she is something of a heroine. Two workers at the Louisiana State University Medical Center found that blue mud daubers take reat numbers of black widow spiders. .. They found nearly one hundred black widows in five nests.

        from Wasp Farm by Howard Ensign Evans

Black Widow Spiderlings

The other day, I went for a walk at Bolsa Chica, and I found this tiny spider living in under a curled up piece of bark. It was a pretty little thing, all marbled brown and white. I could tell it was a Theriid, and was pretty happy with myself for that, but otherwise, I had no idea.

Turns out it's a widow spiderling. Baby black widows really aren't black. Looking at the pictures up here, on bugguide, it looks like male black widows aren't always, either.

And looking at my own pictures, I'm no longer sure whether Milady is a black widow or a brown. This identification business is confusing.

Oh, and someone gave me a link to a site on black widows and the way to tell the difference between widows and steatoda. I'm still figuring it out. Anyway, the site is here. Since it seems all of the Theriids hurt when they bite, and it's generally a good idea anyway, my policy is "look but don't touch," for all spiders.

Updates and Introductions

So, how is everyone in the spider realm? Just fine, thanks!

Mostly, anyway. Someone vacuumed Legs up a few days ago, and she hasn't reappeared. Dead or moved to a less hazardous corner? I don't know, but I suspect the former. I have been looking for her. Milady also seems to have disappeared, but not to worry. There are plenty of widows in the garden!

Speckles stills spins her web, and Peekaboo and her kind are busy all over the yard. I'm getting quite fond of the Funnel Spiders, actually. They're so blessedly easy to spot, and they build such impressive webs.

Now, on to the cast:

 

On first spotting the messy web, we thought there might be another widow lurking between the lime tree and the wall. They (widows) do like the rims of pots. Turns out, though, that this is an entirely different lady. Like Legs, Penelope is a Cellar Spider, aka a Daddy Long Legs Spider, aka a Pholcidae. They eat widows. Go Penelope!

I love the little pattern there on her back, such a delicate little etching.

 

Ozymandias here is one of the Funnel Web Spiders aka a Grass Spider (who doesn't live in grass), from the Family Agelenidae, Genus Agelenopsis (thanks, bugguide!). She's got a massive web. It covers the space between several of the leaves and is far, far larger than you'd think a lady her size could manage.

 

I'm working on learning to spot spiders resting during the day. I'm not terribly good at it yet, but it's fun to try. Here's Speckles, resting in her homemade hammock at the edge of her web.

I think I mentioned we have no shortage of Black Widows? Here's Francoise, settled in comfortably on the statue of Saint Francis in our yard.

Objectively considered, she's beautiful.

I'm not sure I'm objective.

Milady--A closeup

Here's a closer look at Milady.

You know, for a deadly menace, she's kind of dull.  Mostly, she hides somewhere (under the rim of the pot? I'm not lifting it for a look!) until around 8, and then she comes out to the middle of her web and  hangs out there until 9 or so. After that, she's more visible, but no more active. Presumably, she catches bugs and such sometime in the night, but mostly, she's a very quiet spider (which suits me).

Milady

I have not had to ask what kind of creature Milady is.

She's the only one of my stars I wish I didn't know about. Yes, she's lovely, and, yes, I've read several times now that black widows are really very shy and won't actually kill you, but I can't say I find that entirely reassuring. After all, she's a black widow. She's in my yard. She's glossy. She's sassy. She can bite.


Oh, and you know what's even less fair? I just found out that there are brown widows, and they don't have the red mark on them. Not only are they poisonous, they don't advertise it! I ask you!

In case you were wondering: Milady is named from The Three Musketeers. The way I remember the story, the musketeers were primarily fighting the evil cardinal, but they mostly understood his motives. Milady, on the other hand, scared them stiff. At the end of the story, they made peace with the cardinal. Milady was executed.