Sept. 15, 2013 - Spiders

This summer I’ve seen five different kinds of spiders at our home in northern Minnesota. I know very little about spiders, so all of them have been identified by the experts at BugGuide.net. The photo on the left shows a female Goldenrod Crab spider which I found in our wildflower garden. Her hunting technique is to be as inconspicuous as possible on a flower and then grab any insect that comes to the flower for nectar. Sure enough, the next day she had a small butterfly in her grasp (photo on the right). The female spider is about 3/8 inch long and the male is about half as long.

SpiderGoldenrodCrabfemaleMisumenavatiaDunningLakeBovey201307composite

This is a six-spotted fishing spider (Dolomedes triton) and it was right at the edge of our lake. It was quite large; I would guess about 5 inches across. It hunts by waiting at the edge of the water and detecting ripples made by a nearby insect. It is able to run across the water and capture the insect.

SpiderSixspottedFishingDolomedestritonDunningLakeBovey20130705

Here’s another large spider called a Dark Fishing Spider (Dolomedes tenebrosus). It’s often found away from water and, in this case, it was on the rock wall of our basement. I didn’t investigate further but it might be holding a prey item. This spider was about 4 inches across.

SpiderFishingDolomedestenebrosusDunningLakeBovey20130808

Another spider found in our wildflower garden was this Nursery Web Spider (Pisaurina mira). The female spider carries her eggs around with her until they are nearly ready to hatch. She then builds a nursery web and puts the egg sac in it. She stays nearby to defend the little spiders after they hatch.

SpiderNurseryWebPisaurinamiraDunningLakeBovey20130809

One night I was checking around our porch light for moths and this Bronze Jumping Spider (Eris militaris) appeared at eye level right in front of me. It was hanging by a silk thread and was slowly spinning around. That gave me a chance to get photos from the top, side, and bottom. This is a pretty small spider; I would say it was about 1/2 inch long.

SpiderBronzeJumperErismilitarisDunningLakeBovey20130810composite