Spotted this spider on my way to the car as I was leaving work today. I’m pretty sure it’s a spinybacked orbweaver (gasteracantha cancriformis). I thought it was really cool looking. I couldn’t get around the other side to get a picture of the dorsal (top) side though.
This is the underside of the spider (ventral view).
Here it is from the side.
What is it #2
Spiders seem to be getting pretty comfortable around the house. Spotted this neat green/yellow/white one up in the corner. Not sure what variety it is.
Update: A little more research and finding a few more similar looking specimens leads me to believe that this is an orchard orbweaver (leucauge venusta)
Door spiders
This is what I almost walked into at my front door when I went to check the mail.
The lower one was the one that startled me first.
Grabbed my camera to take some pictures, and when I backed up for a slightly longer shot, I noticed the second one higher up. Here it is from outside.
The bottom spider’s web spans pretty much the whole doorway.
Here they are in their zoomed in extreme close up glory (click on the image for an even bigger version).
I’m thinking maybe I should start leaving the front door light on to attract some nice juicy bugs for them at night.
I guess that’s what you get when you don’t use the front door. On the plus side, I bet it makes a great deterrent against random people wanting to knock on the door.
A Path
Magnolias
