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Photo#66552
Vermont spider or visitor from somewhere else? - Pisaurina mira
Copyright © 2006 jessiebird

Vermont spider or visitor from somewhere else? - Pisaurina mira
Middlebury, Addison County, Vermont, USA
May 6, 2006
Size: 2+ inches
This spider greeted us in the bathoom one morning. As I am not a spider killer and it was really too big to step on, we carefully put it outside using the glass/paper trick. (It fit under a glass with not a lot of room to spare!) My husband worried that it might have been poisonous to humans and we shouldn't have put it outside, but I was just more curious as to why this spider showed up when we've never seen another one like it in Vermont ever. Any ideas?
Contributed by jessiebird on 25 July, 2006 - 2:16pm
Last updated 10 August, 2006 - 2:12pm

Native.
This is a native spider, Pisaurina mira, a nursery-web spider in the family Pisauridae. This is a female, and she looks gravid. they normally hunt prey on foot like wolf spiders, but females do spin a "nursery web" for the egg sac and spiderlings that hatch, guarding them closely until the first molt. Despite her size, she is harmless to people.
… Eric R. Eaton, 25 July, 2006 - 3:52pm

 
Wow, That's good to know beca
Wow, That's good to know because I found one on my porch last week. Being a native of Vermont and not ever seeing one before concerned me.
… Renee, 27 July, 2009 - 10:00pm

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