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Polychrus — Crab Spider
Published: 2007-07-16 18:33:00 +0000 UTC; Views: 251; Favourites: 0; Downloads: 2
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Description
Gasteracantha cancriformis...it's very commom around here.Related content
Comments: 12
Here in CA I have never seen such a spider. It is quite unique and colorful. It does look like a crab.
Nice and clear macro.
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Thanks!
It's very beautiful....and very tame too.
[ ]'s
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This looks almost exactly like the Gasteracantha canceriformes that we have here in South Carolina, USA! They are very, very common, almost TOO common, as it's difficult this time of year to walk more than a few steps outside without running into a web!
pitbulllady
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Hehehehe...
Gasteracantha's web have some points with silk treads "clustered"...the spider make them with they back legs. Do you know wath is this?
It's not stabilimentum.
[ ]'s
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Dr. Robert Wolff, a well-known arachnologist with the University of Georgia here in the US, DOES refer to those as stabilimentum. He said that their main purpose is to be noticed by birds so that they don't fly into the web, but to a human, anyway, they are only visable from certain angles, so that I usually don't see them until they are plastered all over my face! I participated in a spider "census" of a nearby national park last fall, and we saw lots of Gasteracanthas and Micranthenia sagitarius(a close relative that has a pointed, arrowhead-shaped carapace), and he pointed out those structures that had the clustered silk threads and called them stabilimentum.
pitbulllady
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Wow! Very cool...but the "thing" doesn't looks like stabilimentum...or looks? hehehe. I'm not arguing...just saying what I see hehe.
I'm familliar with Argiope's stabilimenta: (usually) "zig-zag" pattern, pointing to the centre of the web. This onde is so different...and, really, not so easy to see (I have some photos of these, if you want...).
It's interesting, because I accidentally destroyied the web (passin trought it ¬¬
Thanks again!
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Each species and genus of Orb-weaving spider has its own unique stabilimentum. Not all look like those zig-zags that the Argiopes make, or are found in the same part of the web. Pretty much all of the Orb-weaving spiders will eat a damaged web, although I have actually had a Common Orb Weaver(Araneus diadematus) ball her web up and THROW it at me, after I kept touching it with my finger, ignoring her threat postures and attempts to slap me with her forelegs!
pitbulllady
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Hahaha, cool!
Is it a good shooter? hehe
Looking at google for Araneus diadematus...a think I saw one (maybe not the same species). Is it agressive? I think the next time I see one, I'll bother it...hehehe.
Genus with "3D" webs, like Latrodectus, makes stabilimentum, too?
Thiago
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Araneus diadematus is not aggressive(few spiders are, actually), but they will put on quite a fearsome little display in defense of their webs and will bite if pinned against something with no means of escape. With any spider, escape is always the first and best option. Most don't care to waste their venom on things that are too big to eat.
The spiders that make those "3-D" webs, as you call them(I prefer to call such webs things like "messy" and "sloppy" and "chaotic", lol)do not use stabilimentum, since their webs are usually constructed in sheltered, out-of-the-way places, like underneath rock overhangs or inside cabinets, where they are not likely to be struck by flying birds. Those that build the flat, orb-like webs outdoors, usually between the branches of trees or shrubs or between a tree and a building, are the ones that have to worry about birds flying into their webs and destroying them, so they put that stabilimentum to let the birds know the webs are there, so they can avoid them.
pitbulllady
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Hmmm...it makes sense hehehe. And...I agree: the "3D" webs are closer to "chaotic"...hehe
Do you have good sites (confiable...I mean) about spiders to indicate?
Many thanks!
Thiago
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The only site I have is for North American spiders and insects, besides the forum on Arachnoboards.com, that is. The identification site is [link] and the forum is at [link] - hope that helps.
pitbulllady
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Good, I'll check.
Thanks,
Thiago
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