Spiderling, May 7

Moved

Moved from Spiders. Rod Crawford says orbweaver spiderling.

… Lynette Elliott, 10 May, 2011 - 9:17am

That's good to hear...

I'm assuming this is the same type of egg sac that I labeled as belonging to an orbweaver on p. 375 of my book. Spiderlings emerged from that one too; I was convinced they were orbweavers and never tried to raise them, but with any luck the ones I have now will grow up and we'll find out exactly what species they are.

… Charley Eiseman, 10 May, 2011 - 7:26pm

Great

Based on experience with the area, what do you think they are?

… Lynette Elliott, 11 May, 2011 - 9:25am

No clue!

Looks like I've only photographed a few orbweavers around here--these could be possible suspects... of course, this doesn't include the species I was able to identify without BugGuide, but the ones that come to mind (Argiope, Cyclosa, etc.) have well-known egg sacs that aren't wrapped in leaves.

… Charley Eiseman, 11 May, 2011 - 9:32am

Araneus ?

Interesting... of all those choices it looks like the ones in Araneus have those same bent legs.

… Lynette Elliott, 11 May, 2011 - 9:44am

Safe to say Araneidae?

I wouldn't feel safe moving to family level. Tightly rolled leaf? I haven't come across an orb-weaver that does that yet, though that certainly doesn't mean much. I sure hope you can raise these. It will be interesting to watch them mature.

What was the habitat like where you found the egg sac?

.8 mm - great shot.

… Lynette Elliott, 8 May, 2011 - 11:41am

Egg sac

I added a shot of the egg sac. I see these not uncommonly in the woods around my house; they always look just like this--a tightly rolled leaf (seems to always be birch), about 1.5 cm long, with the petiole wrapped with silk so that it will stay attached to the twig through the winter. Every time I've seen them they've been in closed canopy forest. There is a photo of something similar in Comstock's Spider Book, but it's simply labeled as "egg-sac in rolled leaf".

… Charley Eiseman, 8 May, 2011 - 12:05pm