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Photo#977879
Mastophora phrynosoma female with several males? - Mastophora phrynosoma

Mastophora phrynosoma female with several males? - Mastophora phrynosoma
Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, USA
August 13, 2014
Size: ~19mm
I was very excited to find this Bolas spider while out walking in Buttercup Valley Nature Preserve yesterday morning. She was resting in the characteristic cross-legged pose on a leaf that was at approximately eye-level, just to the side of one of the trails. There were five or more small red spiders crawling around and over her the entire time I was shooting photos, and at first I absent-mindedly assumed they were spiderlings; when I looked more closely at the photos, however, I saw the "boxing glove" appearance of their palps and recalled that Bolas males are much, much smaller than females. Am I correct that this is a female Mastophora phrynosoma, and that the small spiders are males?

Images of this individual: tag all
Mastophora phrynosoma female with several males? - Mastophora phrynosoma - male - female Mastophora phrynosoma female with several males? - Mastophora phrynosoma Mastophora phrynosoma female with several males? - Mastophora phrynosoma Mastophora phrynosoma female with several males? - Mastophora phrynosoma

great find
Matt,

Your photos of M. phrynosoma with her entourage of males are fabulous. I've been working on a project called "the Ohio spider survey" since 1994 and we have very few records for this species. They may be relatively regular, but aren't often noticed. I'm going to add your record to my database. I've never seen a photo with males near a female Mastophora of any species, so this is quite a great find. Thank you for sharing it. The tiny males of Mastophora are famous. In some species they mature in the egg sac and in others they have only one post-emergence molt. Unlike the females which take months and about 7 molts to reach maturity. I'm sorry I didn't notice your post last year.

Moved
Moved from Spiders.

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