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Order of the Month

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Yellow garden spider, Argiope aurantia [Araneidae]
            The yellow garden spider is common and one of the largest spiders that we have. The huge orb webs can be found along the roadside, edges of woodlots and often around homes. This spider goes by many other common names including: black and yellow argiope, writing spider, golden garden spider. I have even heard people call them milk spiders or banana spiders. The name banana spider should be reserved for some tropical spiders that show up in the grocery on banana bunches.
            The large females hang head down in the center of the web. They seldom move unless disturbed or the web captures prey. When they move they can move quickly to pierce the prey and then immobilize it with wraps of silk. Often the prey is held in the web as a reserve food source.
            Male Argiope spiders are quite small are can be found on the outer edges of the web. They only approach a female carefully to mate.
            Females lay egg masses that typically hang from the web. The eggs are laid in the fall of the year and adults will die in the winter. The eggs overwinter in the egg sac and hatch in the spring. Spiderlings will move out to new locations to settle into a new habitat. The young spiders are more black and white and have little yellow markings. The webs of the young are much smaller than those of the adults and do not have the stabulimentum in the web.
            The cross hatched area on the web is called a stabulimentum and there are various theories about the purpose. One theory says that it adds weight and stability to the web, hence the name stabulimentum. Other ideas are that it serves as a warning to birds that are flying by so they avoid the web. A bird flying through the web would cause considerable damage that the spider would have to repair. Another idea is that the stabulimentum serves to reflect certain light wavelengths to attract prey.
            These spiders are large enough to inject venom into people. However, they seldom do. Actually, many children play with them but there are almost no bites reported. They are generally quite harmless because they prefer to move away rather than bite. Nevertheless, the bites that are reported in the literature are said to be painful but temporary.

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Tarantulas
            Tarantulas are the heaviest spiders in Texas. They move around primarily at night when they seek prey. They spend most of the day in a hole in the ground which may be an old mouse burrow, a hollow under a rock or other suitable location.
            Tarantulas do not capture prey on a sticky web. They use webbing to link the burrow and to make a mat outside. The mat will signal the spider when prey moves by and the spider can move quickly out to capture it if it is hungry.
            There are several species of tarantulas in Texas in the genus Aphonopelma but they look quite similar. Identification to species should be left to a few specialists.
            Tarantulas are easy to keep as pets. They need a water supply in a small dish or jar lid that they can walk into and out of easily. They can be feed live crickets, grasshopper, caterpillars or other large insects. Sometimes, they can be trained to eat raw meat.

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Wolf Spiders
            Wolf spiders are really quite a large family. There are many large species in this family but there are some that are quite small too. Wolf spiders often enter homes and they scurry across the room. This disturbs many homeowners. Wolf spiders are really pretty harmless and they can be pushed outdoors with a broom or captured in a jar and released back outdoors.
            Many wolf spiders are brown in color with various markings. This causes some confusion with recluse spiders which are usually much smaller than the large wolf spiders.
            Female wolf spiders carry the egg mass under their abdomen. Once the eggs hatch the spiderlings carry the babies for a few days.
            Wolf spiders have a pair of large eyes. These eyes will reflect light at night. Consequently, you can locate wolf spiders using a headlamp or by holding a flashlight on your forehead. The wolf spider eyes will reflect two pin point reflections from the light. Often the reflected light is green. Once you see this it is easy to find these spiders with this method. You can follow the reflected light source directly to the spider. This may sound like a “snipe hunt” but it really does work. Some of the crab spiders can be found this way too.

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Spitting Spiders
            Spitting spiders are a common spider around homes. However, they are slow moving and active at night. During the day they site in a retreat of silk and go unnoticed. They often make their retreat in corners of the home or garage and especially around windows.
            This spider has six eyes is three pairs which is the same eye pattern as the recluse spiders. However, spitting spiders have spindly legs which are banded and they have a mottled pattern on the cephalothorax. The cephalothorax is raised and almost bulbous in spitting spiders and nearly flattened on top in the recluse spiders.
            Spitting spiders get they name because of the method that they use to capture prey. They creep up on prey and literally spit a sticky fluid on the prey to capture it.
            Females of the spitting spiders carry their egg sacs in their mouth. The young hatch and may crawl on the female for a few days after hatching.

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Widow Spiders
            There are really four species of widow spiders in Texas. Actually, none of these carries an official common name of “black widow spider”. Consequently, the group should be called widow spiders.
            Widow spiders are all in the genus Latrodectus. This genus has the largest members of the cobweb spider family Theridiidae. Many other species of cobweb spiders can be found inside homes and in the landscape but none of these are considered poisonous to man.
            Bites from a widow spider are painful. The toxin is a neurotoxin and travels throughout the body. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, muscle aches, nausea, and other symptoms. Pain may be severe and may require medical attention. However, bites from these are seldom fatal with only a few fatal bites reported per year in the U. S.

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Recluse Spiders
            There are several species of recluse spiders in Texas in the genus Loxosceles.

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Bold Jumper, Phidippus audax [Salticidae]
            The bold jumper is a common spider that is black with a white or yellow spot on the upper side of the abdomen and sometimes a few other markings. The chelicerae (or jaws) are metallic green. The general appearance is stocky, hairy and short legged. They are found in various locations in the landscape and they can sometimes enter homes. These active day hunting spiders move quickly to stalk and capture prey. They can leap good distances like all of the members of the family Salticidae. When they leap off of a surface they can pull themselves back up on a strand of silk.
            Even though these spiders look a bit scary they are not considered very dangerous. They might bite if they are captured or cornered but know enough to stay away from large predators and humans. A bite from one would cause temporary discomfort but should not have long lasting effects.
            The genus Phidippus has several of our larger jumping spiders. They are quite variable in color but all of them are hairy and husky in appearance. There are few species in this genus that are bright red and black in color which lets them mimic some of the larger velvet ants. Velvet ants are really wingless wasps that have a powerful sting.

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Spinybacked Orbweaver, Gasteracantha cancriformis [Araneidae]
            This orbweaver has a peculiar shape of the abdomen that is wider than long with heavy spines sticking out the side. This gives it the general shape like a crab which gives it the species name which means crab-shaped. However, do not confuse this orbweaver with the crab spiders in the family Thomisidae.
            This spider also has a shiny back which looks like procelein. There are several color forms including white, red, yellow and orange. Males of these are much smaller and very different in shape.
            They make webs between trees in woods or semi-open areas. Sometimes the silk can span large distances often 20 feet or more between trees. The orb web will be found out on the base line near the center.

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Green Lynx Spider, Peucetia viridans [Oxyopidae]
            Green lynx spiders are common on flowers around road sides especially in the summer or fall. They sit up on the flower often hidden on the underside and move quickly to capture prey when it comes to visit the flower.
            Lynx spiders make a bulky mass of webbing to protect their eggs and young. They often defend them to and females can be found sitting on the web over the egg mass. Lynx spiders are recognized by the conspicuous eye pattern with four pairs of eyes that can be connected to nearly form a circle.

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A Long Spinneret Spider, Tama mexicana [Hersiliidae]
            Hersiliidae spiders are a tropical family which barely makes it into Texas. This large spider is the only one that occurs in the United States. The males and females have distinctly different shapes to the abdomen.
            They sit on the side of trees in the day and hide in crevices or hollows at night. When prey lands on the tree they wrap it quickly with silk by running rapidly in circles around the prey with the spinnerets towards the prey. This behavior is also seen in spiders in the family Oecobidae which are tiny spiders with webs about the size of a postage stamp.

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Southern House Spider, Kukulcania hibernalis [Filistatidae]
            The southern house spider gets its name because it is more common in southern states and often enters older homes. They spend most of their time in a hole in the wall like a knot hole or a crack in boards or bricks. They line the hole with webbing and extend the webbing outside onto the surface in a circle. When prey touches the webbing they sense the vibrations and move out to capture it.
            Males of these spiders are generally pale brown, fairly spindly, and have the chelicerae extending nearly straight forward. The females are much larger, generally dark brown, and more robust. Females especially are found in bath tubs when then have a difficult time climbing back out.
            The southern house spider is sometimes confused with recluse spiders. However, southern house spiders are larger than recluse spiders. Moreover, they have eight eyes in one cluster while recluse spiders have six eyes in three pairs.

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Daddylongleg Spiders, [Pholcidae]
            Pholcidae are true spiders but get the common name daddylongleg spiders because they have such long spindly legs. They hang upside down in irregular webs often with a bit of a sheet appearance. When disturbed these spiders will shake the web apparently to confuse predators. The shaking is so rapid that they appear like a blur to the human eye.
            Look for these spiders in caves, dark overhangs, old buildings, loading docks, etc. The webs are often in high places.

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Redbanded Crab Spider, Misumenoides formosipes [Thomisidae]
            Crab spiders come in two basic forms: gaudy ones that sit on flowers and drab cryptic colored ones that hide during the day. This one sits on flowers and is often a similar color to the flowers. The males and females are quite different in appearance.

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Antmimic Jumper, Peckhamia picata [Salticidae]
            This small spider looks very much like an ant and often runs along with them in the landscape. There are several other spider groups that have ant-mimic spiders too. Jumping spiders take on many shapes and some of them mimic pseudo-scorpions.

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