Tuesday, April 11, 2006

A Wall Spider

Over at Burning Silo I read a very interesting post, spider eyes, yesterday about identifying spider families byt the number and arrangement of the eyes. From it, and with author Bev's help, I learned that the tiny spider whose photograph appeared here back in November is a jumping spider. Today, another spider came by to visit me at my computer.


To give some idea of the size, the loop at the bottom of the spider is part of a decorative border on a piece of paper tacked to the wall, and is an eighth of an inch long. With my naked eyes I couldn't see the markings that show up in the photo--the spider looked black, and even more horizontal than it does here. In life the spider also had much more presence than the background--this photograph, unfortunately, is more democratic.

I can't make out the eyes--and didn't see them when the actual spider was here--but the general shape reminds me a little of the flower crab spider in the Burning Silo post--so maybe it's a member of that family.

There are three types of spiders I see in the house now and then: this one, the jumping spider, and the big wolf spider. Then there is a very wispy spider, called, I believe, the house spider, that is a ubiquitous and constant resident. That one has so far proved very difficult to photograph.

Too many spiders? Some might say so, I guess.

2 comments:

Pam in Tucson said...

What a wonderful photo of a very handsome spider. I love Wolf Spiders. we occasionally get them in the house and I love to see the females carrying their masses of little ones on their backs.

Endment said...

Fascinating- I like spiders well enough outside or away from my desk. However, I am more than a little territorial about my desk and chair.
Great photo!