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 002
Marbled Orb Weaver
Category: Arachnids
Family: Araneidae

I am proud to say that the newest addition to the museum is a new collection of vialed insects and arachnids. So to kick off this new section I present this beast of a spider which my friend Kayla and I managed to find and capture her at Cornell University, down by Beebe Lake. Now we weren't too sure about our on-the-spot identification, but I believe that it may be a Marbled Orb Weaver, possibly Araneus marmoreus. They aren't poisonous but the thing is a bit too big for me to feel comfortable around it. 

NH 008
Harvestman
Category: Arachnids
Order: Opiliones

Thinking about making Saturdays 'Spider Saturdays,' but we shall see if that will continue . Anyway, technically today's exhibit isn't actually a spider at all despite most everyone calling them spiders. They are, however, arachnids (just not true spiders) and belong to the order Opiliones. I don't know the rest of the classification yet, but if anyone knows how to classify these guys further please just post a comment. 

NH 003
Banded Garden Spider
Category: Arachnids
Family: Araneidae

So, it's Saturday and I think I'll continue on with Spider Saturday here at the Sholesonian. Today is a very interesting piece that I personally collected, interesting in both how big it is and the story about how I captured it. First off, I can tell you that this is a Banded Garden Spider (Argiope trifasciata) after I mis-identified it as a Common Black and Yellow Garden Spider (thanks Kayla). Second, I should tell you how I go about collecting my spider collections. I use those plastic cups with lids that normally are used for taking ketchup and other condiments for on the go, and I just scoop them up when I find them. 

NH 007
Grass Spider
Category: Arachnids
Family: Agelenidae

It's Saturday, which means only one thing, that it's Spider Saturday! Today's spider is actually the first spider from outside my building I caught and vialed for the collection. This spider is a very common grass spider here in Ithaca. This guy belongs to the genus Agelenopsis and is probably a male. He was found behind Warren Hall , Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA and collected on September 18th, 2010. These guys build funnel webs to live and catch their prey (though their webs aren't sticky like the stereotypical spider web, but they are quite fast and agile). 

NH 021
Cellar Spider
Category: Arachnids
Family: Pholcidae

Sorry for the lack of updates the past few days, I've been both busy and tired and never got around to it. But I would not forget to give you guys Spider Saturday! So here is the next arachnid on the circuit. This guy is known as a cellar spider and while I'm most definitely not positive about the exact classification, I'm going to go out on a limb and say Pholcus phalangioides, though if you know your stuff and think otherwise please let me know. But I do know that it does belong to the family Pholcidae. 

NH 020
Crab Spider
Category: Arachnids
Family: Thomisidae

I apologize for not posting anything in awhile, I've been a little busy lately. But it doesn't matter because it's Spider Saturday! Now, since I've been busy I don't have too much information on this guy, only his family which is Thomisiade. What I like about these spiders is that they differ from the usual color scheme and they have the distinctive angled front legs which look look oddly enough like their namesake: crab spiders.

NH 013
Long Jawed Orb Weaver
Category: Arachnids
Family: Tetragnathae

It's Spider Saturday once again, and while I promised some of you that I would be posting the newest arachnid addition to the Sholesonian, the permanent display has yet to be finished so you'll have to wait a little bit longer (maybe next week but I can't be sure over the holiday weekend). So I have decided to post up one of my favorite spiders from the vault. This guy was collected on the Thurston Avenue Bridge, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA sometime in September after dusk. The bridge is literally crawling with thousands of these guys and other spiders and they are most prominently seen at nightfall. 

NH 015
Jumping Spider
Category: Arachnids
Family: Salticidae

I was going to post up a my really good spider up today but haven't had time to photograph it right, but I haven't forgotten Spider Saturday so I'm presenting the smallest vial in the collection today. I don't have too much information on this particular specimen. At the moment I only have the family name (Salticidae), which is the grouping for jumping spiders. More unfortunate news is that this guy was collected before I was keeping good tabs on collection dates and localities, thus there is very little exact information on it. 

NH 099
Giant Golden Orb Weaver
Category: Arachnids
Family: Nephilidae

Don't worry I haven't forgotten about Spider Saturday, but in celebration of the Sholesonian's 'Birthday' yesterday I'm giving you guys the spider of the Natural History Collection. This behemoth of a spider is over eight inches long and I have actually included a standard US quarter for scale. This particular guy comes from Jember, East Java, Indonesia so if you aren't particularly fond of large orb weaving spiders you might want to cancel next year's vacation plans to Indonesia. But really these Giant Golden Orb Weavers (Nephila maculata) are essentially completely harmless to humans. They do have some venom but it isn't deadly to humans.