Four and a half spiders

I'm finding spiders every day, now, after a strangely spider-free summer. They're here at home, out in the garden, and yesterday, hiking down to Elk Falls, I passed three lurking in the shadows and a long web stretched across the trail. A welcome sight.

These are some I found at home. Four and a half spiders.

One. She's a Common Crab spider, Xysticus cristatus.

Same spider. I was following her all around the kitchen.

And here she is again, with the half spider. A molt of one of the little ones that hide behind the tiles.

Two. A small False Black Widow, Steatoda grossa. That white ghost is just a bump in the paint.

And a two-fer, spiders three and four. Cellar spider, eating a Woodlouse spider twice her size. She drained the abdomen and dropped the rest on the floor for the staff (me) to clean up .

And with a whole month to go before Arachtober, I might have my quota of spider pics on time. 

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Ahora estoy encontrando arañas todos los dias, esto después de un verano curiosamente sin arañas.  Las veo en casa, en el jardín, y ayer, bajando el sendero hacia las cataratas, vi tres, y además una telaraña larguísima que se extendía de un lado del camino al otro. ¡Otra araña con grandes ambiciones!

Estas cuatro y media arañas las encontré en casa;

1. Una araña cangrejo, Xysticus cristatus.
2. La misma; la estaba siguiendo mientras exploraba mi cocina.
3. Y otra vez, ahora con la media araña: una muda de una de las arañas miniaturas que vive atrás de los azulejos.
4. Esta es la que llaman la viuda negra falsa. (Totalmente inofensiva.) Steatoda grossa. El fantasma blanco es una protuberancia en la pintura de la pared.
5. Y dos por el precio de una. Una araña fólcida, Pholcus phalangioides, comiéndose una araña Dysdera crocata el doble de su tamaño. No la pudo terminar; se chupó el interior del abdomen, y dejó caer los desechos al suelo. Cuenta con servicio de limpieza gratis, (yo) al fin.

Y me queda todo un mes antes de Arachtober; parece que tendré mi cuota de fotos de araña completa con tiempo.

Pig in a poke

The gift. Neatly wrapped, with only an ear and a snout poking out.

Female spiders are dangerous beasties, not least to their prospective mates. They have to be wooed; a suitor must bring a suitable gift. (Or he's lunch.)

I was a little too late to see the approach. When I discovered this pair, she was already holding a silky gift-wrapped package.

Looks like a trussed piglet, but I think it was a weevil.

Here's the hopeful male, waiting.

Gift accepted.

She turned away and took her package home, down a crack behind the dresser. A few minutes later, she came out, without the gift. She approached the waiting suitor, slowly, reached out a long leg and touched his toe. He stepped back, shyly, but then came forward again. She touched him again. They sat there for a while, looking each other over.

I went to refill my coffee. When I came back, both spiders were gone. I haven't seen them since. She will be busy, tending eggs. He? If he's lucky, he'll be there for the next date.

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El regalo estaba bellamente envuelto, son solamente una oreja y un hocico visibles.

Las arañas hembras son peligrosas, sobre todo para sus galanes esperanzados. Hay que cortejarlas; un pretendiente debe traer un regalo aceptable. (Si no, servirá de cena.)

Llegué tarde, y no vi cuando este araña fólcida macho presentó su ofrenda. Cuando descubrí la pareja, ella ya llevaba un paquete envuelto en seda.

Fotos:

1. Parece un puerquito chico, bien envuelto. Pero creo que es un gorgojo.
2. El macho, esperando saber su suerte.
3. Le gustó su regalo.

Ella se dió vuelta y se llevó el paquete, escondiéndose tras la cómoda. Al cabo de unos minutos, salió, sin paquete. Se acercó a su pretendiente, lentamente, alargó una pata e hizo contacto, apenas, con la pata que el extendía. El se echó un poco para atrás, tímido, pero luego se acercó de nuevo. Ella le volvió a tocar. Y los dos se quedaron allí por un buen rato, mirándose cara a cara.

Fuí por otra taza de café. Cuando regresé, la pareja había desaparecido, y desde entonces, no los he visto. Ella estará muy ocupada allí tras la cómoda, cuidando sus huevos. ¿Y él? Si tuvo suerte, estará pendiente para la próxima cita.

Moving day for mother and babies.

 I discovered a thriving spider housing development in the inch-wide space between my desk and the wall. Good spot; I haven't moved the desk for a few years. I only found it now because a cellar spider mother took her babies for a walk;  maybe she was looking for a less-crowded environment to raise her family in. She caught my eye as she rappelled down the back of a chair and I followed her as she ducked under the top of the desk. There, she installed herself towards the back, over a shelf. Crawling on the floor, I managed to wedge the camera with it's added flash and a back-up light into the space, all without disturbing her. She's there still.

Bagful of babies; she'll carry them until they hatch out.

And no, I won't eradicate the housing development; it does me no harm, and they keep down the mosquitos and other flying critters.

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Ayer encontré una vecindad multifamiliar tras mi escritorio. Arañas fólcidas, sus telarañas muy pobladas llenando el espacio angosto entre el escritorio y la pared. Un buen sitio escogieron, pues no he movido el escritorio por varios años.

Ahora me di cuenta, porque una de las arañas decidió ir a pasear con su familia. La vi bajándose por el respaldo de una silla, y la seguí mientras cruzó a esconderse bajo el tablero del escritorio. Tal vez buscaba un sitio más tranquilo en donde puede cuidar a sus hijos.

A gatas, logré insertar la cámara con su flash auxiliar y otra luz (pues el sitio no admite la luz de la habitación) y apuntar todo el conjunto en dirección hacia la araña. Y sin molestarle en lo absoluto. Sigue allí hoy.

Foto: la araña con la bolsa de huevos que cargará en la boca hasta que salgan las arañitas.

Y no, no pienso eliminar la vecindad. No me hace daño alguno, y los habitantes se ocupan de librar mi casa de mosquitos y otros insectos voladores.

Cat's eye spider

I haven't posted anything here for a couple of weeks, while I was busy adding spiders to the Arachtober pool. The last one has been a tiny cellar spider I found "drowned" under the sink protector in my kitchen, and she sent me on a search for more info, information beyond what goes into the Arachtober pool.

Here's the story:

I lifted the sink liner, and there she was, lying on her side, all the legs stuck together, not moving. But you never know; spiders are tough. I picked her up, gently, by the legs, and put her on a bamboo towel to dry. And went for the camera.

(If you've been following along in the Arachtober pool, you've seen these photos.)

Cellar spider, Pholcus phalangioides, female.

She's twisted off to one side, but at least I got her legs untangled.

With her in that position, and not moving at all, I was able to get a good look at her eyes. She has eight (not all the spiders in this family are eight-eyed; some have only six.) And they're arranged in three clusters. Two with three eyes, one of which is somewhat crescent-shaped, and a pair together in the centre.

I was wondering about the anatomy of these eyes. Jumping spiders have front-facing eyes that don't seem to move, but with the right lighting (and a good lens) you can see that inside, the eye is a movable tube, with a lens at either end and then the retina behind all that. So the eyes don't seem to be moving, and don't alert the prey, but they still roam, even separately, scanning the area, finding their target, and gauging distance before they leap. Are cellar spider eyes set up on the same plan?

Google, google, google. Nothing. I found studies of the hairs on their legs, of the spinnerets, of the circulatory system — did you know that under a microscope, you can see the moving blood cells in her legs? (AnimalDiversity) — but no internal eye structure. It's probably out there somewhere, but I haven't found it. Yet.

But there's this: 

These spiders have at the back of the eye a reflective membrane called a tapetum. It is this surface that aids in night vision and causes their eyes to reflect light and shine in the dark, like a cat’s eyes.  (Cirrusimage.com)

Look at the second photo above, and also the fourth, scrolling down; you can see this clearly.

Here she is recovering, has straightened herself out and raised her legs, ready to walk.

Top view. Notice the mirror-like eye?

Before she was ready to move on, she allowed me to come in close to her face.

Eyes, fangs, pedipalps, and knobby knees.

Zooming in; she's still sort of sleepy. That didn't last.

She was starting to move about. I transferred her to a fruit bowl near a warm light. Half an hour later, she was gone. I found her the next day, hanging under my kitchen cabinet in her new web.

Waiting for dinner now.

I let her stay there; after getting up close and personal with her, I couldn't deny her house room.

In my search for eye anatomy, I ran across a few interesting tidbits:

I was watching to see if I could catch her in the act of grabbing her dinner, but she didn't react as I had expected. Instead, when a fruit fly touched a leg, instead of grabbing it with her fangs, she immediately jerked several legs. With no luck the times I saw her, but judging by the frass under the web, she's been eating well.

From Wikipedia: The spider patiently waits until the exact moment at which the prey touches one of its legs. Then, the P. phalangioides spider quickly immobilizes its prey by using its legs to wrap it up in layers of silk. Its long legs give it plenty of distance from the prey to avoid being bitten in retaliation. After immobilizing its prey, P. phalangioides can administer their venomous bite to the prey and consume it.

(She's a spider hunter; this explains the mention of a retaliatory bite. She can catch and eat spiders much bigger than herself. This is how. Her venom is relatively mild, but good enough on an already tied up subject. She is still cautious, biting her prey on the leg, away from its fangs, and allowing its circulatory system to do the rest of the work.)

P. phalangioides is capable of clinging onto their web with two of their legs while the rest of their body leans out of the web and shoots silk in the direction of the prey to subdue it.

 Her web is not sticky, like those of some other spiders; instead, it is messy and tangled and extends for sometimes quite a distance. The mess is enough to temporarily slow down an insect, and she dashes over to immobilize it.

When a prey is caught, the spider rapidly wraps it in the silk using the second and third pair of legs to rotate it and the fourth pair for leading the thread coming out from the spinneret glands. Particularly big preys are secured with tie rods anchored on the highest part of web. (Then) the preys are killed with a venomous bite and can be eaten at once or conserved. (Monaco Nature Encyclopedia)

She also may invade webs, sticky webs, of other spiders. No problem. For her; not for the invadee.

When it walks on the web it’s invading, the legs of the skull (Note: alternate name) spider may occasionally remain entangled. In such case, it bites off the silk and cleans up the leg, before eliminating the adhesive piece of the web and replacing it with its own thread. (Monaco Nature Encyclopedia)

And she looks so delicate!

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No he subido nada a este blog por un par de semanas, mientras me ocupaba subiendo fotos de arañas al grupo de Arachtober en Flickr. La última araña fue una arañita fólcida que encontré y que parecía estar ahogada bajo la estera de mi fregadero; me inspiró a buscar más información, más de lo que pude subir a Arachtober.

Esto es lo que pasó:

Levanté la estera y allí estaba en el agua, reposada sobre un costado, con todas las patas unidas, estiradas. No se movía, pero las arañas son duraderas, y la recogí con cuidado, tomándole de las patas, y la puse sobre una toalla de bambú para secarse. Y fui a traer la cámara.

(Si has estado siguiendo las fotos en Arachtober, ya habrás visto estas fotos.)

Fotos:

1. La cabeza de una araña Pholcus phalangioides, hembra.

2. Está torcida, con la cabeza a un lado, pero por lo menos logré separar las patas.

Ya que ella se quedaba quieta, sin moverse, pude fijarme en sus ojos. Tiene ocho. (Algunas de las arañas de esta familia se limitan a seis.) Estos ocho ojos se arreglan en tres grupos: dos con tres ojos, el tercero en forma de media luna; y dos ojos juntos en el centro de la cara.

Me preguntaba si estos ojos serían como los ojos de las arañas saltarines; éstas tienen ojos que parecen fijos, pero por dentro forman un tubo con una lente en cada extremo, y luego, atrás, la retina. A la vista, los ojos no parecen moverse, y así no espantan a su presa, pero en verdad se dan vueltas, a veces por separado, buscando presa, ajustando la distancia y el ángulo del salto. ¿Y los ojos de las fólcidas?

Busqué y rebusqué en Google. Nada. Encontré estudios sobre los pelos en las patas, sobre las hileras, sobre el sistema circulatorio — ¿Sabías que puedes ver las células sanguíneas moviéndose dentro de las patas bajo un microscopio? (AnimalDiversity) — pero no vi nada sobre la estructura interna de los ojos. Probablemente habrá algo que no hallé. Más tarde, tal vez.

Pero hubo esto:

Estas arañas tienen al fondo de los ojos una membrana reflectante, llamada el tapetum. Esta superficie ayuda en la visión nocturna y hace que sus ojos brillen en la oscuridad, al estilo de los ojos de un gato. (Cirrusimage.com)

Mira la segunda foto, arriba, y también la cuarta, abajo; allí se ve el reflejo de la luz.

Foto #3: aquí empieza a recuperarse; se ha enderezado y ha levantado las patas.

#4: Vista desde arriba. ¿Ves el ojo reflejante?

#5: Antes de estar lista para caminar, me permitió acercarme a su cara. Se ven aquí sus ojos, los pedipalpos, los quelíceros, y las rodillas bultosas.

#6: Acercándome aun más. Todavía un poco dormida. No duró mucho.

Empezaba a moverse. La puse a descansar en un plato de frutas cerca del calor de una lámpara. Media hora más tarde, se había ido. Al otro dia, la encontré en su nueva telaraña, colgada bajo uno de mis gabinetes de cocina. Después de meterme tanto en su vida, no me sentí con autoridad de negarle espacio para vivir; ahí se queda.

Foto #7: En su telaraña, esperando su presa.

Buscando eso de la anatomía de ojos de araña, encontré otros datos interesantes:

Miraba para ver si la podría sorprender en el acto de capturar su presa, pero no actuaba como yo lo había esperado. Cuando una mosca de la fruta, Drosophila melanogaster, se le acercaba hasta tocar una de las patas largas, no intentaba atacarla con sus quelíceros venenosos, pero de inmediato sacudía varias patas. No tuvo suerte mientras yo observaba, pero veo que se ha estado alimentando bien, por los sobrantes que ha dejado debajo de la telaraña.

En Wikipedia, vi esto: "La araña espera pacientemente hasta el momento preciso en que la presa toca una de sus patas. Entonces la P. phalangioides rapidamente inmoviliza su presa, usando las patas para envolverla en capas de seda. Sus patas largas la permiten mantener suficiente distancia de la presa para evitar ser picada por venganza. Después de inmovilizar la presa, P. phalangioides le inyecta su veneno a la presa y la come.

(Es cazadora de arañas; por lo tanto se menciona la posibilidad de la defensa por medio de una picadura. Puede cazar y comer arañas mucho más grandes que ella misma. Así es como lo hace. Su veneno no es muy fuerte, pero sirve bien cuando la presa ya está firmemente atada. Sigue actuando con cuidado, picando su presa en las patas (de la araña presa), lejos de sus quelíceros, dejando que la circulación sanguínea termine por preparar su comida.)

P. phalangioides es capaz de colgarse de la telaraña con dos patas mientras que el cuerpo se estira fuera de la telaraña y dispara seda en la dirección de la presa para atraparla.

Su telaraña no es pegajosa como las de otras arañas, en cambio, es enredada y se extiende por buena distancia. Es suficientemente densa como para detener la presa por unos momentos, suficiente para que P. phalangioides llegue a envolverla en su seda.

Cuando se atrapa alguna presa, la araña la envuelve rapidamente en su seda, usando la segunda y la tercera pares de patas para darle vuelta y la cuarta par de patas para guiar la seda procedente de las hileras. Presas especialmente grandes se fijan con tirantes conectadas con la parte superior de la telaraña. Luego se mata la presa con una picadura venenosa, y o se consume al momento o se guarda para más tarde. (Monaco Nature Encyclopedia)

Puede también invadir telarañas de arañas de otras especies, telarañas pegajosas, sin problema. Para ella, por lo menos.

Cuando camina en las telarañas invadidas, puede ser que las patas de esta araña se enmarañan. En este caso, muerde la seda y limpia la pata, antes de eliminar ese tramo de telaraña, sustituyendo en su sitio algo de su propia seda. (Monaco Nature Encyclopedia) 

¡Y se ve tan frágil!

So many legs!

 After the dust speck flies, here are some of the spiders that prey on them:

Leggy. Cellar spider, Pholcus phalangioides. Always elegant, but a messy housekeeper.

Really, really leggy. Tiny spider on a dusty mirror, which accounts for the extra legs. 8 mm. long.

Not so leggy. 2 mm. long.

One more, not photographed: I stepped out of my door yesterday and found that a cross spider had stretched her web completely across it. Going for bigger prey, I take it. I escaped that time, though.

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Después de las moscas tamaño polvo, aquí hay algunas de las arañas que las cazan.

Fotos:

1. Patuda. Una araña de los fólcidos, Pholcus phalangioides. Una ama de casa algo descuidada.
2. Muy patuda. Una arañita escondida en el borde de un espejo polvoriento. El espejo le da esas patas de sobra. Mide 8 mm., de las mandíbulas hasta las hileras.
3. No tan patuda. Una arañita de solo 2 mm. de largo.

Una más, pero sin foto: al salir por mi puerta ayer, me encontré con la telaraña de una araña Araneus diadematus, una telaraña que cubría toda la puerta. Buscaba presa más grande, supongo. Pero por suerte, me di cuenta a tiempo, y aquí me tienen todavía, no convertida en desayuno de araña.

Cellar spider and wings.

 And back at home, waiting for it to stop raining again. Here, a patient cellar spider hangs upside-down day after day, rarely moving.

Pholcus phalangioides

I never see her catch anything, nor is there anything hanging in her web. I wondered whether she is finding anything to eat; I don't see any critters flying around. I searched on the floor beneath her web. And there it was; long dead, dried out, but still identifiable; a tiny, 5 mm long crane fly. With beautiful wings.

Abdomen and wings. The rest had crumbled to dust.

The crane fly's abdomen was almost the same size as the spider's. She's well fed.

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De vuelta en casa. Todo tranquilo. Una araña de patas largas, muy paciente, espera dia tras dia en su telaraña, colgada patas arriba. Nunca la veo moverse; no aparecen restos de su presa en la telaraña. ¿Será que no come? Busqué en el piso debajo de la telaraña, y junto a la pared la encontré; una mosca grulla, o típula, muy chica. Con unas alas bellas.

Fotos: la araña, Pholcus phalangioides. Y el abdomen y las alas de la típula. Lo demás se había hecho polvo.

El abdomen de la típula era casi el tamaño que el de la araña. Parece que no le falta comida.

Welcome visitors

 Trying to decide which are my favourite spiders; house and garden edition.

These, I think, are my favourites. Cross spider, Araneus diadematus. Such pretty patterns! And gorgeous webs! In the carport.

No, these are my favourites. Egg case of American house spider, Parasteatoda tepidariorum. Patient parents. Lawn and garden clipping bag.

No, actually, I think these are my favourite spiders.Giant house spider youngster, Tegenaria gigantea. Speedy security guard. On my bedroom wall.

Or maybe it's this one, so fragile-lookiing, so elegant! Cellar spider, Pholcus phalangoides. In a corner of my bedroom, with family everywhere, inside and outside.

But then there are the jumpers, who haven't been visiting lately, but I'm always glad to see them. And the wolves. And the crab spiders. And ...

I give up. They're all wonderful.

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Tratando de decidir cual de todas las arañas que me visitan son mis favoritas. Estas, las de la casa y el jardín.

1. ¿Estas? Araneus diadematus. Porque son tan bonitas, y hacen telarañas muy lindas. Esta está en la cochera.
2. O estas. Parasteatoda tepidariorum. Araña casera americana. Tan pacientes con sus crias. Este es un saco de sus huevos, en la bolsa de desechos del jardín.
3. O no, estas son las favoritas.Tegenaria gigantea. Araña casera gigante. Guardianes de la casa. Este es un jovencito en la pared de mi recámara.
4. No, mejor son estas. Pholcus phalangoides. Una araña fólcida. ¡Tan elegantes, y parecen (pero no son) tan frágiles! Esta espera su presa en una esquina; sus familiares están por todas partes, adentro y afuera.

Pero se me olvidan las saltarines, las cuales no han venido a visitar recientemente, pero siempre son bienvenidas. O las arañas lobo. O las arañas cangrejo. O ...

Me rindo. Me encantan todas.

Cellar spiders: life is good!

Now that the weather is a bit cooler, I'm starting to find spiders outside again. Cellar spiders, mainly; here are two, carrying their treasures.

Mother with egg sac.

I haven't seen a male around for a while, but these spiders may mate and then wait until food is available before they lay their eggs. The sac may have up to 60 spiderlings; I think this batch has about 30. They will hatch in a couple or three weeks, and she will carry them until they are ready to move on.

Another sort of treasure: meals for a week.

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Ahora que los dias son un poco más frescos, aun con un poco de lluvia, estoy encontrando más arañas afuera de la casa, en su mayor parte, arañas fólcidas: aquí hay dos, con los tesoros que cargan.

Primera foto: una araña fólcida hembra, con sus huevos. No he visto machos por el rumbo últimamente, pero estas arañas pueden aparear y luego esperar a que haya suficiente comida para poner los huevos. Pueden tener hasta 60 huevos a la vez; esta parece traer más o menos 30. Eclosionarán en unas dos o tres semanas, y la madre cargará con las arañitas hasta que estén listas para enfrentar el mundo a solas.

Segunda foto: otra fólcida, otro tipo de tesoro: las comidas para toda una semana.

176 legs

Just hanging out.

A pair of cellar spiders at my door. The one on the right is carrying her eggs.

Pholcus phalangioides.

The mother carries her sac with from 20 to 30 eggs in her jaws. As the spiderlings inside develop, the legs inside each egg become visible.

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Dos arañas, Pholcus phalangioides, colgadas arriba de mi puerta de entrada. Una cuida su cápsula de huevos. La hembra pone de 20 a 30 huevos, y los guarda hasta que eclosionan. Cuando crecen un poco, aun dentro del saco, se pueden observar las patas largas en cada huevo.

Spider half-dozen

I was puttering in the garden yesterday and a spider rode her silk down from my forehead to the tip of my nose. "Hey! You've been ignoring us!" was the message.

Okay, okay, I get it. Sorry! So here are a few recent spider pics.

Cross spider, Araneus diadematus, with a sowbug wrap. That's a hefty meal!

Another, laying in wait over the flower bed just outside my kitchen window.

Cellar spiders, Pholcus phalangoides, (I call this one "Spots") are so elegant!

Except when they forget which leg goes where.

A roaming male, unidentified, searching for a mate on my bedroom wall. You know he's a male by the boxing gloves. And look at those fangs!

There! Am I forgiven now, spidey?

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Estaba trabajando en el jardín ayer cuando una arañita bajó, colgándose de su telaraña desde mi cabeza hasta la punta de mi nariz. Como si dijera —¡Oye! ¡Nos has estado olvidando!

Bueno, tiene razón. Así que aquí van unas fotos recientes de mis compañeras arañas.

Primera y segunda fotos: Arañas "cruz", Araneus diadematus, la primera con un taco de cochinilla. ¡Comida para una semana!

Tercera y cuarta: las arañas Pholcidae siempre son tan elegantes. Hasta que se les olvida cual pata va en cual lugar.

Quinta foto: una araña macho, sin identificación, cruzando la pared en mi recámara, buscando su media naranja. Se sabe que es macho por los guantes de boxeo que lleva. ¡Y mira esos colmillotes!

Y ahi lo tienes, arañita; ¿me puedes disculpar ahora?

Leggy coffee and a taco

 Isn't she pretty? She makes me think of creamy coffee. Hungry creamy coffee.

Cellar spider, with meal.

Zooming in, to see the prey.

It looks like her supper is another spider, one of the big spiders that work keeping the earwigs and sow bugs at bay.

These spiders, for all their apparent fragility, are highly efficient predators. There's been a good crop of them this year, and the cross spiders, the jumpers, the wolf spiders, the various Steatodas*, and those big Tegenaria house spiders have all disappeared from around the house, inside and out. I know where one cross spider has her web, and there is (or was; maybe this was it!) a house spider behind a cabinet, but I haven't seen a jumper or a Steatoda for quite a while. But the cellar spiders are getting big and fat and making eggs.

*Both Steatodas and Tegenarias end up being called house spiders. Confusing!

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Una araña fólcida (patilargas) con su taquito. Que es otra araña, una de las grandes cazadores.

Estas arañas parecen tan frágiles, tan delicadas, pero son depredadoras muy eficientes. Este año han salido muchas, y las arañas de la cruz,"diadematus", las saltadoras, las arañas "lobo", las Steatodas, y esas grandes Tegenarias (como la del taco) han casi desaparecido de la casa y los alrededores.  Sé donde hay una telaraña de una araña de la cruz, y hay una araña de casa (o hubo: tal vez fue la del taco) atrás de un gabinete, pero no he visto ni una saltadora ni una Steatoda por mucho tiempo. Pero los fólcidos, las arañas patilargas, se están haciendo grandes y gordas y están poniendo muchos huevos.

Lucky

Cellar spiders, Phlocidae,  live in cellars. And attics. And corners of quiet rooms. Out in the "wild", they choose caves and abandoned burrows. In my house, I find them in the shadowy corners of the hallway, behind lamps in the bedroom/office. And just outside my door, in the three-walled entrance to the carport.

This one is a big male.

You can tell he's male by the big "boxing glove" pedipalps.

I don't see many males, and those I do see are usually quite small. They don't last long; the females eat them.

Pholcus phalangioides.

These are elegant spiders, and look fragile. They're not. Even though I know and like spiders, I jump back if another species gets too close. Not these; they can walk right over me without getting a reaction. I think it may be because in the other spiders, the fangs (which won't do me any harm, but still ...) are so close to the feet. With the Phlocidae, those fangs seem remote.

But these spiders are effective predators. I often see them lunching on much larger house spiders, or huge crane flies and moths. And, of course, the unlucky males.

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Los fólcidos, arañas de patas larguísimas, viven en sitios encerrados, como casas, cuevas, talleres; sitios oscuros y tranquilos. En mi casa, hacen sus redes en las esquinas superiores del pasillo, y atrás de lámparas en la recámara/oficina. Y en la entrada de la cochera.

Este es un macho grande. No veo muchos de éstos, las hembras se los comen.

Son arañas muy elegantes. Parecen frágiles; no lo son. Aunque me gustan las arañas, y no les tengo miedo, cuando una de otra especie se me acerca demasiado, me echo para atrás sin pensarlo. Se me ocurre que es porque en otras arañas los colmillos están muy cerca de las patas. (No que creo que me puedan hacer daño; sé que mi piel es demadiado grueso para ellos, pero de todas maneras ...). Con los fólcido, esos colmillos están lejos.

Pero estas arañas son animales de presa muy buenos. Muchas veces las veo comiendo arañas de otras especies mucho más grandes que ellas, o moscas y mariposas nocturnas varias veces su tamaño. Y por cierto, esos machos desafortunados.

Big dinner

Cellar spiders are such elegant, delicate spiders, with their long legs and their coffee-and-cream patterned abdomens. They look fragile. They're not.

Cellar spider with larger jumping spider for lunch.

They routinely capture and eat spiders over twice their bulk. This one took three days to finish off her catch, and her abdomen took on his colour until she was almost black herself.

I don't know how long the colour lasted, because my cat discovered her and chased her down a crack. She hasn't come out into the open since. Smart spider!

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Las arañas de bodega (Pholcus phalagioides) son tan elegantes, tan delicadas, con las patas largas y el diseño de café con crema de sus cuerpos. Parecen ser frágiles. Pero no lo son.

Acostumbran cazar y comer otras arañas, más grandes, a veces más de dos veces su tamaño. La del foto tiene una araña saltarina (Salticidae). Tomó tres días para comerla, y mientras tanto cambió su color hasta que estaba casi negra.

No sé cuanto le duró el color, porque mi gata la descubrió y le persiguió hasta que se escondiá en una grieta.

Knees up, Mother Brown

I've spent several hours over the last three days just trying to take a photo of one spider. She's set up her web in an antique cabinet on my wall, where I can reach her easily. But she's too smart for me.

Cellar spider, Pholcus phalangoides. More legs than spider.

These spiders spin long, fragile, almost invisible lines of silk, in no particular pattern, stretching far from their resting place. I see patches where they have caught prey here and there, but most of the lines seem to be a warning system. So the problem with taking her photo was that as soon as I got anywhere near, she went into hiding. Even cautiously positioning my flash attachment a foot away, with no other movement, made her leave.

When the flash hits her directly, she looks grey. In normal light, she's pale brown.

Or maybe she decides not to run away. She has another strategy: a touch on her web, far away from where she waits, and she begins to dance. She vibrates and spins rapidly, too fast even for my old eyes, let alone the camera.

... And whirling round and round. Whirling round and round. Whirling, whirling, never twirling. Whirling round and round. (From children's version of "Knees up, Mother Brown".)

Setting the camera on autofocus sometimes works, if the background is right. Otherwise, since the spider is so pale, the camera decides I want the wood grain, or the leftover bits of web. With manual focus, I have to get close enough to see what I'm getting, and by then, she's gone. She's in cahoots with the camera.

This afternoon she moved to a spot where I could insert the camera and one hand, but couldn't see my screen. And the flash was already set up aiming sort of that way. So I set the camera on manual focus and took almost 100 blind shots; something would work, I hoped.

I got knees.

Knees up, Mother Brown

And hairy legs.

And shiny eyes.

It seems that the patterns on her abdomen are not on the surface, but the internal structures, seen through a traslucent skin. I'll have to find another one and take more photos to confirm this.

Where have all the critters gone?

For some reason, unexplained, this is not a spidery year. Nor has there been the usual insect population, which I would expect when there are fewer spiders to prey on them. I can't remember when I last saw a mosquito. Which is pleasant when you're trying to sleep, but worrisome.

I haven't seen any moths since the ones we followed in the summer. There was a cabbage white butterfly around my flowers last month. Not a flock of cabbage whites, as I would expect.

One singing cricket. Half a dozen crane flies. A few days of green shiny flies. A dozen fruit flies hovering around my old bananas. Beetles? No. Not even ladybugs. I remember seeing one black beetle in the lawn a few weeks ago. It's western conifer seed bug season, when they start moving inside to find a warm spot to spend the winter. There have been none so far this fall.

No wonder there are so few spiders! There's nothing for them to eat.

It's Arachtober. As usual, I collected spider photos for it all year; I needed 45 to post this month. I ran out last week.

I did a thorough inventory of my house, the carport, the flower beds and the lawn. In the house there are cellar spiders, mostly tiny. Their prey seems to be entirely other cellar spiders and one or two little flies.

In the carport: one cross spider, two small unidentifiable spiders, in hiding. In their trash, wood bug remains. And more cellar spiders.

In the flower beds; one cross spider. No jumpers.

I combed spots on the lawn with my fingers, hoping to disturb something small and leggy, as usual. Nothing. Green grass, creeping Charlie, no bugs, no spiders.

No wonder there are so few birds! There's nothing for them to eat.

What is going on?

It's not as if I were in a heavily-polluted area. The street is residential, with large lots backed with bush, in a narrow strip of housing between ocean front and uninhabited forest. There is no heavy industry nearby, nor farms spreading insecticide.

I went to Oyster Bay and explored the usual spidery spots; cottonwood trunks, rolled leaves, old fences, logs on the dunes, the public washrooms. I found a half dozen spider egg cases in over an hour of searching.

I stopped at a disintegrating shack along the shore. Inside (one and a half walls are gone) there were spider webs. No live spiders. No insects.

I turned over boards and pieces of log on the ground around the shack. Wood bugs. A few, but it was good to see something moving.

And I found two spiders. Alive, and busy raising families. Very nice. But; two? When there should have been two hundred?

Something is wrong.

Here are the two spiders:

Spider # 1, on the bottom of a broken piece of log. She has two egg cases, stacked, and full of babies. There's a small slug and three mites for company.

Spider # 2. In the crack between two broken logs. She's guarding her brood, still in the egg sacs.

Her egg sacs. If you look closely, you can see the spiderlings inside, even a few little legs.

I replaced the wood very carefully, not wanting to disturb either the mothers nor their babies. But at best, a dozen or so spiderlings will survive.

 Among a litter of a hundred baby Wolf spiders, usually around one percent survives to adulthood. That’s one out of a hundred. Those are pretty lousy odds if you are a young spider trying to make his/her way in the world. (Quora)

There are still two Arachtober days to go. I have no spider photos left. Unless I use the rubber dollar store spiders I bought, just in case.

Overrun with legs. And little fangs.

Things get kind of tense around here towards the end of October. Or, better said, "Arachtober", when we spider-fanciers post one photo per day of spiders to the Arachtober group page on Flickr. The last week of Arachtober, this week, we're posting two a day.

And that's where it gets stressful. I run out of spiders before the end of the month. This year, I have plenty of spiders, but they're all the same species; cellar spiders, Pholcus phalangioides. I crawled around my house today, searching in all the corners, on the underside of the furniture, around the baseboards, behind the plants; cellar spider, cellar spider, family of cellar spiders, more cellar spiders. The only other spiders I found were the sad remains of cellar spider lunches.

It has been raining and blowing, but I went outside and looked; there had to be at least one other spider somewhere! No. Only more cellar spiders. I think they've eaten everyone else.

Cellar spider female eating her unlucky mate.

Another cellar, eating the last of the big house spiders.

Cellar spiders look delicate and flimsy, and they're usually small, but somehow they're able to capture and eat the largest and hungriest of their relatives. And huge crane flies, many times their size and weight.

Today's cellar spider, just hanging out.

And another one from this afternoon, eating something small.

I'm going to end up posting rubber spiders from the dollar store if this keeps up.