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Photo#357102
Orbweaver - Araneus sp? - Araneus thaddeus - female

Orbweaver - Araneus sp? - Araneus thaddeus - Female
Raleigh, near Rts 50 and US 70, Wake County, North Carolina, USA
November 16, 2009
Size: body about 0.5 in
6-8 in diam. symmetric orbwoven web appeared "out of nowhere" on a warm sunny fall day on a 4 ft blooming deciduous azalea at the edge of the woods. Only saw her on the web at 11 am on two non-consecutive sunny days. The afternoons, a middle dark day, and the last of 5 days she was inside a rolled up leaf at an edge of the web. The following day all the leaves had fallen; I found her leaf, but with her silken "nest" empty. However the next day, the 7th day, a similar web appeared 5 feet away on an evergreen azalea, with a spider inside a rolled leaf there. That night we had cold rain with a lot of wind. Never found her or web again. I was only able to photograph her one shot on the first day. After that first shot and every other day when I tried for a ventral or dorsal shot she would immediately start the web vibrating so strongly that I could not get her in focus.

Images of this individual: tag all
Orbweaver - Araneus sp? - Araneus thaddeus - female Orbweaver - Araneus? - Araneus thaddeus - female Orbweaver - Araneus thaddeus - Araneus thaddeus - female

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

Our first thought is also A. thaddeus
and especially as you refer to her silken nest. Look in the guide for images of the small cylindrical lattice she makes and see if it stirs a memory.

 
Yes the silk hide-out was cylindrical, Jane and John.
I did not realize that its shape was diagnostic. I didn't think to photo the leaf after she had left it and it was on the ground. I happen to have a photo of the outside of the leaf because I was originally photographing the large yellow flowers amid the yellow leaves, for blooming in the fall instead of in the spring when they are "supposed to" bloom. The cylinder was not mostly standing free like the photos. The leaf was much larger than those pictured, and curled tightly around the "nest" because the leaf was already yellow, turning brown. I had a distinct memory of how round the entrance was. It's neat to learn what to look for. Next time... Thanks everybody for sharing how you made your decisions. --Susan

 
Me too

 
You have "Shoulders," John.
I didn't get the impression while watching her that my A. thaddeus lady's abdomen was other than spherical, so didn't study this species in the guide. Now I see there is quite a bit of variation here also as well as in color! Also, how does one decide whether to add the abdomen diameter/length to the cephalothorax length when the spider has so many positions, if one doesn't see her walking? She looks long when she hangs head down!

 
I don't know
I just do my best and hope I get close. Sometimes I says X mm in this pose.

More images?
I'm not convinced this is Araneus marmoreus. Is your size the measurement without the legs? Did you take any other images?

 
Just for my own continuing education...
do you have other species in mind, or is it just that marmoreus doesn't seem right to you?

 
Araneus
Yes a few others did come to mind. Araneus thaddeus - Lattice Orbweaver was my first thought. Half an inch is pretty big for that species, though. It would be more like 7 mm, but I'm not sure how accurate the measurement above was.

 
You're right...
thaddeus seems to be a better match. Obviously, I should've looked (more deeply) before I leaped. Thanks.

 
I'm with Lynette. It just loo
I'm with Lynette. It just looks a little "not marmoreus"-like to me. The markings on the "shoulders", for example, nag at my brain and say "didn't you... wasn't there... isn't that...". But I don't have any alternatives to offer just now (you might want to browse the orb weavers here).

-Kevin

 
I'll just have to work on my "Spidey Sense" :)
In the meantime, I will defer to the specialists. I hereby retract my vote for marmoreus. My official stance is now "dunno."

 
Well, it's not such a bad gue
Well, it's not such a bad guess, either. And you've got the family down.

-Kevin "has been known to be wrong" Pfeiffer

I would have guessed
Marbled Orbweaver - Araneus marmoreus

Backlighting makes it tricky, though.

Take a look here and see what you think (scroll down to see the varied forms taken by this species).

 
Ken, Thanks, Ken, for telling me about that page
on variation in Araneus marmoreus. Thanks to John Sloan for compiling it! I had no idea there would be so many colorations, and mine does seem to fit in the spectrum!

 
Immature, too.
Size suggests this is either immature, or a different species altogether. Mature females of marmoreus don't usually sit in the hub of the web by day.

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