Spidery Day

Finally, some fresh snowfall polished the landscape and allowed for insects to stand out against the brilliant white background.  The most abundant critters crawling around in the balmy mid-30's weather were spiders.  All told, at least four species were represented (with one individual found dead on the snow).  Without finding any other insects most of the morning, I wondered what they might be eating.  Maybe each other?

I only found one that looked like the one on the right.  I was hoping its unique pattern would be distinctive, and it was!  It was recognized on bugguide as being in the genus Phrurotimpus. 

Another spider that I bumped into looks like a ground crab spider.  Like the Phrurotimpus, this is this was the only individual of its species that I found on the walk.  If I'm right about the ID on this crab spider, they are commonly found on the ground and will eat both insects and other spiders.

 

And yet another spider was the Long-jawed Orbweaver.  I'm not sure if I'm seeing one species of these or many, but they are definitely the most abundant on the snow, with around 10 seen today.