Saturday, August 18, 2007

Spined Micrathena - Micrathena gracilis


I love these spiders and I've seen this particular species alot at camp. They tend to vary in color and pattern but bugguide says different:

Identification:

Females are mostly white or pale yellow mottled with black or brown. They have ten spines on the chunky abdomen. Size 8-10 mm.

Males are flat with an elongated yellowish or white abdomen. They lack all but one or two of the abdominal spines and are smaller then females averaging to 4.5mm in size.

The one in this photo is a perfect example of that. They say nothing about the color of the cephalothorax or the legs. But any way at least you know what they look like. The ones that I've seen at camp were black and had black abdomens or white on the top.

They belong to the family Uloboridae :)

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