Friday: 22 June 2007
The bog gardens, one 50 sq ft and one 75 sq ft located just off the east side of the house, have been a source of pleasure and discovery for four or five years now. They’ve been the subject of a number of posts, and along with artificial ponds I highly recommend them as arthropod magnets. They’re filled with pitcher plants, and pitcher plants (in addition to their passively carnivorous nature) are also splendid arthropod platforms and, in this case, nurseries.
This large spider was frustrating, because the markings are so clear that she should have been easy to identify, but browsing through Bugguide didn’t net anything. I should have done more than just use the browse function.
This thumbnail is a more dorsal view. She’s built her web surrounding and extending down into the pitcher trap, Where I assume she’s hidden her egg case. Clever girl.
I had the feeling it was one of the Nursery Web spiders, perhaps one of the Fishing Spiders, Dolomedes, and though she isn’t that, she’s a cousin:Pisaurina mira. The problem was that this species is fairly variable and so I wasn’t hitting on images of my particular variation.
UPDATE: This is almost certainly Pisaurina brevipes. I realized this when I found a real P. mira today, Aug 17 2007.
She doesn’t build webs to hunt, but she does build them as protection for her eggs and spiderlings, and she guards them besides, which is what she’s doing now. Looking about, I found two others using the densely clustered pitchers as foundations for their nursery webs.
One of the clues came in the eyes, and by the way I found a hidden treasure on Bugguide on spider eyes. Unfortunately she was intent on hanging down and I could not get a great picture of the eyes, but enough to convince me that they correspond to nursery web spiders. These are unlinked blowups (and therefore terribly fuzzy) of what little I could pick up on the eye patterns. I’ll try to replace them with something a little better today.
UPDATE: She seems to be gone this morning, but there are spiderlings now evident. I’ll work on getting some shots of these.
This large spider was frustrating, because the markings are so clear that she should have been easy to identify, but browsing through Bugguide didn’t net anything. I should have done more than just use the browse function.
This thumbnail is a more dorsal view. She’s built her web surrounding and extending down into the pitcher trap, Where I assume she’s hidden her egg case. Clever girl.
I had the feeling it was one of the Nursery Web spiders, perhaps one of the Fishing Spiders, Dolomedes, and though she isn’t that, she’s a cousin:
UPDATE: This is almost certainly Pisaurina brevipes. I realized this when I found a real P. mira today, Aug 17 2007.
She doesn’t build webs to hunt, but she does build them as protection for her eggs and spiderlings, and she guards them besides, which is what she’s doing now. Looking about, I found two others using the densely clustered pitchers as foundations for their nursery webs.
One of the clues came in the eyes, and by the way I found a hidden treasure on Bugguide on spider eyes. Unfortunately she was intent on hanging down and I could not get a great picture of the eyes, but enough to convince me that they correspond to nursery web spiders. These are unlinked blowups (and therefore terribly fuzzy) of what little I could pick up on the eye patterns. I’ll try to replace them with something a little better today.
UPDATE: She seems to be gone this morning, but there are spiderlings now evident. I’ll work on getting some shots of these.
