Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Photo#8925
Ground spider - Callobius bennetti

Ground spider - Callobius bennetti
Western, Massachusetts, USA
June 30, 2004
This guy was only about 1 cm long total.

Male hackled-band weaver
This is definitely a male spider, as evidenced by his swollen palps, loaded with sperm and ready to go:-) Looks to be one of the hackled-band weavers, in what used to be the family Amaurobiidae. Might still be, but the taxonomy of spiders has been drastically overhauled in the last ten years. Anyway, hackled-band weavers do not spin sticky silk. Instead, they comb out silken threads in such a manner that they generate static electricity that helps trap prey. They also have a special spinning organ called a cribellum, in addition to the usual spinnerets. The cribellum spits out the special silk.

 
Wow
Thanks for the info.