Circus of the Spineless Rides Again

If it's the end of another month, then it's time for the circus, Circus of the Spineless, a monthly collection of the best of invertebrate blogging from around the world. The latest edition (the 24th!) is graciously hosted by Demented Pixie of Naturalist Notebook. Check it out!



Next month the circus will appear at The Annotated Budak.

Report from the Kitchen Floor

It's Circus of the Spineless time again, the blog carnival of all things invertebrate. It's up at Burning Silo. The theme is discovery. After you finish looking at my recent spineless visitors, "discovered" on the kitchen floor, head on over there for reports on the spineless from around the world.


I think the burying beetle was the most interesting critter to appear on the kitchen floor, but recently there have been others.

I don't know what kind of moth this is--though it is one I've seen (or ones very like it) many times before. The strange thing about this one is that it was lying still on the kitchen floor, looking dead, but apparently in some kind of stupour. The floor is cold, so that may have been it. I took it outside to photograph it (and because the kitchen was no place for it). It stayed right where I left it for several days. I nudged it occasionally and it always responded, still alive. After a while it vanished--whether of its own accord, or snapped up by a bird I don't know.


This spider is a frequent visitor, and probably a basement resident. It was perfectly alert, which is why I photgraphed it on the kitchen floor instead of moving it out first. I don't know what this one is either--should try to look it up at the Nearctic Spider Database. Update: Haven't been able to find anything except Dolomedes triton that fits, as suggested by the comments to this post--if this is right, odd that a fishing spider would be in the house.


It isn't So if it's Dolomedes triton then it is one of the Spider WebWatch spiders, but a couple of my favourites are among the nine spider ambassadors. If you watch spiders, consider joining the WebWatch. Click the link to find out more.

If you watch all kinds of things, and you're a blogger who hasn't yet heard about Blogger Bioblitz, click this link to The Voltage Gate and get involved.

Thanks to Jennifer at Invasive Species Weblog and Nuthatch at Bootstrap Analysis for the Blogger Bioblitz button!