Natural History Notes
by Bob Thomas

It’s difficult not to love to watch Jumping Spiders, members of the family Salticidae. These little guys obviously have personality. They are very alert, and seem to spring about with great excitement.

In fact, they have the best vision of all spiders. Their eyes are arranged so that they have two very large eyes pointing forward, giving them good binocular vision. They can see 4-8 inches, and they catch their prey by approaching, then jumping on it - a distance often many times their own length.

Natural History Notes
by Bob Thomas

Natural History Notes
by Bob Thomas

The Orchard Spider, Leucage venusta, is a small (1/3") spider of the Family Tetragnathidae that is common in our forests. It is a spectacularly patterned and colored spider, being green with a splotch of florescent red-orange on the bottom of the abdomen, and silver and yellow stripes down the sides. Orchard Spiders construct their webs within a few feet of the ground in places where it receives spotty sunlight. The spider constructs its orb web at about a 45, then hangs upside down in the middle.

Delta Journal
by Bob Thomas

The garden spider (Argiope aurantia), also called the black and yellow argiope, is a common member of the Orb-weaver Spiders (Family Araneidae).

Delta Journal
by Bob Thomas

Crown Spiders, Gasteracantha cancriformis, are very common in Louisiana swamp forests during the spring and summer. Some locals call them “crab spiders” because their backs remind one of a blue crab shell - oval, shiny, and with many spikes extending around the edges. This carapace (the back) also looks like a king’s crown, and there is a whole family of spiders that are officially called crab spiders (Family Thomisidae), so we’ll call them crown spiders (they belong to the Family Araneidae).

Nature Notes
by Bob Thomas

There is a group of spiders in our area that live predominantly around water. They are quite capable of running about on the water's surface, and feeding on animals, such as insects, small fish, tadpoles, and the like, that live at or near the interface of water and air. These are the Fishing Spiders of the genus Dolomedes, Family Pisauridae (members of which are commonly called the Nursery Web Spiders).

Since they run and float about on the surface, the genus is called Raft Spiders in England.

Delta Journal
by Bob Thomas

The word scorpion usually makes people shiver. The first thing we think of is the potential for a deadly envenomation, or sting.

All scorpions do sting, but few are deadly, and the species on the Gulf coast is not a threat to life.

Delta Journal
by Bob Thomas

The Wolf Spiders of the Family Lycosidae are among the most abundant and commonly encountered spiders in the forest. They usually run about individually on the ground, and do not construct webs to capture their prey. This predatory behavior earned them their common name, since wolves run about in search of their prey. Very large wolf spiders may reach 2 inches in length, but most are about one inch long or less.

Delta Journal
by Bob Thomas

Virtually any spider that constructs a rounded web may be properly called an orb spider, since the name of such a web is an orb. There are, however, some spiders that may be commonly called Orb-Weaver Spiders (these include the locally common genus Araneus, Family Araneidae).