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Agelenidae Funnel-web Weaver San Antonio, TX 11 Jul 2009 Thanks to Cliff M. for these excellent photographs, taken with a Canon SD450 PowerShot.
Cliff M. wrote: "The spider in these photos (Cliff sent a number of images, but the image above is the best of the lot and the others do not materially add to it) has built its web outside my new home in NE San Antonio. The spider's body is about an inch across, leg-body-leg. I hope you can tell me something about it. I recently turned (Cliff's age has been redacted for privacy purposes), and have had a camera in my hand since age 10. I've taken over 5,600 shots with this camera alone." I thanked Cliff for the excellent photos, and asked if he could take some more, especially of the frontal head that will show the arrangement of the eyes. Then I explained I was only a few years his junior, and I, too, had kept a camera nearby since my tenth Christmas, when I found a Kodak Hawkeye under the tree with my name on it. Two years later, using money saved from a paper route, I bought an Argus C-3, and have sought to hone my skills at photography ever since. But I digress... As to the photo at hand, it is of a funnel web weaver in the family Agelenidae, similar in many respects to the specimen Marney M. photographed at Sam Houston National Forest on July 3rd, as portrayed in the photo below. Notice, for example, that the patella of each leg is darkened, as is the distal portion of each tibia, and the tarsus of each palp, in both spiders. There are important differences, too. Cliff's spider's legs have additional dark bands, for one thing, to the point that every leg segment has a dark mark at its distal end and the tibia is marked at mid-shaft as well. The alternating dark and light stripes on the carapace are reversed, for another; Cliff's spider has a dark, narrow median stripe bordered on each side by a narrow pale stripe, then by a broad dark stripe. Marney's spider, however, has a pale median stripe bordered by a broad, dark marking.
The funnel-web weavers are a fascinating family of spiders. With help from Marney and Cliff we will have an opportunity to learn more about them. ---------- Does it pique your interest in arachnology to see these photos, and read about the spiders they portray? That is my hope. You may have gotten the impression that much is yet unknown about North American spiders, and if so, that was not a mistake. Ignorance about our arachnid friends--they are, in the main, rather beneficial, not the enemies most of us imagine them to be--is measured by the ton. Rather than discouraging you, that fact should make you want more than ever to get involved in helping us fill in the gaps and make strides forward in our understanding and knowledge. The field is still wide open, quite contrary to what you may have previously believed. So, consider doing as Kendra did and get directly involved in pushing our knowledge forward. If you happen across a spider in North America, please photograph your discovery and send me copies of your photos. Whenever possible, every inquiry is answered immediately--I try to answer every email inquiry within minutes of reading it, and every telephone inquiry is answered on the spot, as most (alas, some emails do fall through the cracks from time to time) who call will testify. * TERMITE ENCOUNTERS * SNAKE ENCOUNTERS * SNAKE BITE FIRST AID * SNAKE EXCLUSION * SPIDER ENCOUNTERS FOR 2009 -- 2008 -- 2007 * SPIDER BITE FIRST AID * SPIDER EXTERMINATION * PUSS CATERPILLAR ENCOUNTERS * PUSS CATERPILLAR FIRST AID * PUSS CATERPILLAR EXTERMINATION * Assembled & Edited by Jerry Cates. Questions? Corrections? Comments? BUG ME RIGHT NOW! ---- Ph: 512-331-1111 ---- E-Mail ---- Privacy ----BugsInTheNews * --0a0s-- |
