NH 347Furrow Spider
Larinioides cornutus
Category: Arachnids
Family: Araneidae

While we weren't able to make this for Saturday, here's another great spider post from our new researcher Eddie Brooks. This particular guy was found on the side of a shed in Ithaca, New York on the afternoon of March 16, 2012. And a nice big shoutout to the people over at Spiders.us who helped with the identification of this male orb weaver!

 Larinioides cornutus, commonly known as the Furrow Spider, belongs to a group known as Orb Weavers, who get their name from the concentric circular pattern found in the webs the make. Orb weavers are prolific; they can be found on almost any continent, except Antarctica. The Furrow Spider in particular, however, can be found throughout North America and Europe, and has been occasionally observed in parts of Asia. They are nocturnal creatures that grow up to be roughly half an inch in size. They can be identified by the brown pattern on their backs. Furrow spiders will never bite unless provoked, and can be commonly found in urban settings, where they will prey upon other insects in basements, cellars, and other dark corners. For more information, BugGuide has details on the Furrow Spider and the Orb Weavers in general.   

NH A006
Spicebush Swallowtail
Papilio troilus
Category: Lepidoptera
Family: Papilionidae

So you may have noticed something a bit different, the Sholesonian tag for this nice butterfly specimen is A006 so what in the world does that mean? Well, I'm currently in Arkansas working on a research project investigating the geology of Venus and I unfortunately wasn't able to bring all my museum equipment (including the record book for insects) so all non-geology/fossil posts will have a unique Arkansas tag. And now that we are back up and running here is a beautiful swallowtail specimen collected outside the Fantastic Caverns of Springfield, Missouri with a new Sholesonian researcher Eddie Brooks: