280 days of Urbpandemonium #159

[urbpan]

Most often we see these spiders tucked back in the mouth of the funnel (sometimes these are called funnel spiders) of their web, and moment we take notice they disappear back into the safety of the darkness. For whatever reason this Agelenid* spider was out in the open on our shed. The funnel opens out onto a horizontal sheet (sometimes these are called sheet web spiders) often on a man-made object, a hedge, or on the grass (sometimes these are called grass spiders).


Large males, like this one, are conspicuous when they enter houses roaming around looking for females. When a "HUGE" spider is reported to me (in New England), I narrow down whether it is a nursery web spider, a Carolina wolf spider, or a wandering male Agelenid.

* Charles Walckenaer, the original author of Agelena, did not elaborate on the meaning of the word and there are too many speculations to give anything definite here