280 days of Urbpandemonium #55

[urbpan]

I arrived at Alex's house, and she had just cleaned her way through the cobwebs of her basement bulkhead. I said "oh boy!" and went down to find the spiders. Most were cellar spiders, naturally. I did find, however, this lovely Steatoda triangulosa.* She's slightly different colors from the ones I've seen before, but the pattern is unmistakeable.

This is another species that probably came from Europe originally, but is so common both in Europe and North America that its not entirely clear. Unless my memory is wrong, it's also found in Australia with the apt common name "cupboard spider."

* I'm not kidding you when I report with some delight that the scientific name translates more or less to "Triangles on her fat ass."