What about the brown recluse, which the furnace man worried about today as he disappeared into our crawl space. Oh, I guess it doesn't live here? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_recluse_spider#Distribution
From: friam-boun...@redfish.com [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Steve Smith Sent: Friday, October 08, 2010 10:47 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Name this spider My $.02 It looks (and by description of it's web) like what I know of as an "Orb Web" Spider. Common enough in Northern NM and harmless (to humans) despite the sinister (downright ugly?) look. There seem to be a *lot* of spiders referred to as "orb web" including <http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/4dmg/Pests/catspid.htm> Araneus gemmoides. The only spider I give the least pause for in this area is the obvious and cliched black widow. I've encountered them "often enough" but have never felt more than mildy threatened by them... they never seem to live anywhere I want to live, though they do seem to live places I feel the need to visit (crawlspaces, etc.) from time to time. I usually ignore them but occasionally do the smash-and-grind-to-a-pulp thing when they appear somewhere I don't want to run into them unexpectedly (inside the house in particular) again. My lack of encounters with Black Widows may be a result of my high tolerance for Pholcus phalangioides (Daddy Longlegs) who are reputed to finding black widows a special delicacy. In my current (rural) home the only spiders I ever see are Daddy Longlegs, Orb Web/CatFaces (your new friend), Black Widows, and what I think of as a "wolf spider" by their behaviour and appearance, but no close inspections. These spiders creeped me out pretty much when I first encountered them, but now find them quite entertaining. - Steve Hoping there's someone on this list that knows something about spiders in New Mexico... There were two of these hanging out just on the outside of my house in Santa Fe. One had made a large somewhat circular web about 2 ft across. At night it would sit in the middle, during the day it would hide in a corner. You can get an idea of the size from the tines of the dining fork. I think they are big. I've not yet been successful in finding anything online that seems to come any where close. Any ideas on what type it is, should I be worried? Let me know if you'd like a higher res. image. Thanks, Robert C ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
