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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Arachnids (Arachnida) » Spiders (Araneae) » True Spiders (Araneomorphae) » Entelegynes » Orb Weavers (Araneidae) » Micrathena » Spined Micrathena (Micrathena gracilis)
Photo#135723
spidey - Micrathena gracilis
Copyright © 2007 augray

spidey - Micrathena gracilis
Flat Rock, Crawford County, Illinois, USA
August 11, 2007
Size: 1/4 inch or so
I see these small spiders in webs, the kind you walk into on a path through woods, and they have that tent looking thing, which they seem to either carry with them in it or they can stretch mostly out of it. I was just wondering what kind of spider it is, plus is the tent thing something they make, shed, find, or part of them and always there?
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Contributed by augray on 11 August, 2007 - 5:12am
Last updated 29 August, 2007 - 6:07pm

I see a lot of these as well,
I see a lot of these as well, of a similar species. My guess is that this is a Spined Micrathena - Micrathena gracilis. Check it out for yourself - I'm pretty sure I'm right on this one.
… Jim Bliss, 11 August, 2007 - 7:17am login or register to post comments

 
Thanks so much for the inform
Thanks so much for the information. You are right after I checked out pictures of the spider doing a search. Is that spiny thing always attached, i.e. just part of the spider?
… augray, 11 August, 2007 - 8:27am login or register to post comments

 
The
spiny thing is the spiders body, and you are right, Jim.
Easily IDed by the five pairs of 'spines'.
… Jeff Hollenbeck, 11 August, 2007 - 11:40am login or register to post comments

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