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cottonmanifesto. Location: Park bench, Olmsted park, Brookline.Funnel web spider Agelenopsis naevia
Funnel web spiders are some of the most commonly encountered predators in the urban ecosystem. Their webs are horizontal sheets, which catch insects when they drop from above, or stumble into them. The spider hides in a silken tube at the back of the sheet, waiting to feel the vibrations of the trapped prey. When it happens the spider darts out, delivers a paralyzing bite, and drags the insect back into the tube to be consumed in concealment.
There are dozens of spider species that weave funnel webs, varying by geography, and by where they prefer to spin their webs. Some species are known to prefer indoor spaces, while others tend to choose fields and lawns. Hedges and trees are used, and a variety of man-made structures. Often the spider will incorporate a natural or man-made cavity into the web, spinning their tubes into the pipes of a chain-link fence or the hollows of a tree. A. naevia is a common species in New England, sometimes given the common name "grass spider."
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Date: 2006-09-25 02:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-25 04:03 am (UTC)A number of funnel web spiders call the groundcover juniper on the hill out front home. They're neat little things
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Date: 2006-09-25 04:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-25 04:59 am (UTC)*runs away*
Irrational fears FTW.
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Date: 2006-09-25 06:57 am (UTC)Hey,
:puts on Crocodile Dundee Hat:
Mate, that's not a Funnel-Web Spider. This is a Funnel-Web Spider...*g*
Atrax Robustus- The Sydney Funnel-Web, in typical 'Mess-with-me-an'-I-Kill-yous-dead' Pose:
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Date: 2006-09-25 07:34 am (UTC)P.S. I love your icon!!! That's a Cobalt Blue, a Brazilian Wandering Spider, and what's the other one? Is that a bird-eater?
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Date: 2006-09-25 09:01 am (UTC)Hey,
I love Atrax and Hadronyche Funnel-webs. From a respectful distance *g*
Icon- Cobalt Blue, Brazilian Wandering and a Babboon Spider. Here's another one with different web-slingers!
Love your icon too. It's a shame those Happy-Faced Spiders aren't lethally venomous, because that would be nicely ironic *g*
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Date: 2006-09-25 07:27 pm (UTC)It's a shame those Happy-Faced Spiders aren't lethally venomous, because that would be nicely ironic
I know, huh?
It sorta makes me question my own religious philosophies, because this spider is way too funny to not be the product of a smart-assed higher consciousness.
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Date: 2006-09-25 11:26 pm (UTC)Salticids are ace. My favourite over here is the Fringed Jumper Portia fimbriata, a bizarrely cryptic little Jumper that feeds exclusively on other spiders- specialising in other jumpers!
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Date: 2006-09-25 11:01 am (UTC)I would hate to confuse the (growing numbers!) of Australian readers. As you know, I had to dance around the "daddy long-legs" issue as well. I'm incapable of identifying any harvestmen, so that's probably for the best.
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Date: 2006-09-25 11:28 am (UTC)You say "Funnel-Web" in Australia, and everyone automatically pictures an Atrax robustus... The Funnel-Weaving Grass Spider isn't represented here...prolly because it's not venomous enough to be included in the club *g*
Cellar Spiders, Harvestmen and Crane Flies sharing the name 'Daddy Long-Legs' in common parlance is a pain, but they're not so hard to tell apart. Cellar Spiders look like spiders, Crane Flies look like steroid-chomping versions of mosquitoes, and with their clumped-together heads/abdomens, Harvestmen look like weird crosses between a spider and the Martian War Machines from WAR OF THE WORLDS...
btw- the favoruite food of the harmless Cellar Spider, weirdly enough, is the various and distinctly non-harmless representatives of the Black Widow family (Latrodectus)! The Cellar Spiders mosey right into the Widow's web, go straight to the nest part of the snare and eat the Widow in situ...
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Date: 2006-09-25 11:39 am (UTC)Ah, in much the same way that the European house spider competes with the dangerous hobo spider, no?
Glad to have such a knowledgeable arachnophile contributing to the discussion!
(Still watching my windowsills for a Phiddipus audax--my favorite--to use in the 365 project! It may never happen :( We did find a nice big Phiddipus with a face on its abdomen, on our trip to Texas.)
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Date: 2006-09-25 12:30 pm (UTC)Indeed! Black House Spiders (Badumna robusta) also chow down on Red-Back Spiders like popcorn, and are themselves the favourite prey of another infamous Aussie, the White-Tailed Spider (Lampona cylindrata) which has been implicated in several cases of Necrotising Arachnidism (think a spider-transmitted version of Scalded-Skin Syndrome)
Jumping Spiders are keen. Even hardcore arachnophobes tend to find them tolerable, prolly because the fuzzy face and huge eyes trigger our inate mammalian "nurse the cute baby mammal" response!
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Date: 2006-09-25 01:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-25 03:21 pm (UTC)You'd be grumpy too if a scientist shoved a glass tube in your face and vacuumed up your spit evry time you wanted a nice sit down *g*
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Date: 2006-09-26 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-25 07:47 am (UTC)cozy curving metalwork on a park bench? no one else living here. guess i'm home! i'll just throw up a few silk curtains for accent. and dinner...i mean guests :)
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Date: 2006-09-25 09:04 am (UTC)Indeed! Metal objects warmed by the sun but with nice nooks and crannies that the spider can hide in are pretty much almost immediately claimed by Red-Back Widows (the Aussie variant of the Black Widow) over here..
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Date: 2006-09-25 11:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-25 12:25 pm (UTC)Red-Backs tend to avoid mail-boxes here, as they are also often home to Black-House Spiders, which eat them. Red-Backs are famous for liking to build webs beneath the seat of outhouse toilets, which causes envenomation problems for people (especially men, for obvious anatomical reasons) who need to use them in the night. They also love playground equipment, the corners of garage doors and the space under the capping of asbestos fences...
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Date: 2006-09-25 07:26 pm (UTC)puts me in mind of the classic far side cartoon where the ambitious spider has built a web across the bottom of a playground slide. wish i could post it here, but i can't find the image, and gary larson is kind of cranky about that sort of thing.
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Date: 2006-09-25 11:20 pm (UTC)Potentially dangerous, yes. Like all Widows, Red-Backs are extremely timid and will drop and play dead/run for it when harrassed rather than get aggressive. They only bite when they feel like they're being squashed. There's also an Antivenom available- no-one in Oz has died of a Red-Back bite since it was brought out.
I remember that one. "If we pull this off, we'll eat like kings!"
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Date: 2007-09-04 12:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-25 11:44 am (UTC)These guys have some of the messiest webs, don't they?
Great post...as always :)
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Date: 2006-09-25 04:53 pm (UTC)cheese!!!!!!!!
Date: 2008-09-19 04:03 pm (UTC)Funnel-web spider
Date: 2010-04-15 04:34 pm (UTC)1 & 1/2" in diameter. I've tried to look it up on google, but the only thing I can find that ressembles what I saw is the deadly Australian version. Anyone ever hear anything like this?
Re: Funnel-web spider
Date: 2010-10-04 01:06 pm (UTC)[IMG]http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f383/lilitha99/P1050131Small.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f383/lilitha99/P1050128Small.jpg[/IMG]
Re: Funnel-web spider
Date: 2010-10-04 01:09 pm (UTC)Re: Funnel-web spider
Date: 2010-11-03 03:26 am (UTC)Probably a Purse Spider...
Picture of Sydney Funnel-Web spider
Date: 2010-04-15 04:40 pm (UTC)Re: Picture of Sydney Funnel-Web spider
Date: 2010-11-03 03:27 am (UTC)They don't build webs, they dig burrows, like trapdoors...
Re: Picture of Sydney Funnel-Web spider
Date: 2011-01-26 12:49 am (UTC)Re: Picture of Sydney Funnel-Web spider
Date: 2011-01-26 01:30 am (UTC)Re: Picture of Sydney Funnel-Web spider
Date: 2011-01-26 04:02 am (UTC)Sure thing. Post it up and I'll have a look!