So what kind of spider makes a web like this?

I was just on vacation in mid-south Mississippi, and a few mornings, when it was still misty, my sweetie and I could see the ground was covered with webs. All the white blotches on the ground are webs. (The white dots are flowers.)



Of course, being close to the Gulf, one spider was inspired to make a hurricane-shaped web:



A few spiders got very ambitious, climbed trees and vines, and made these incredible 3-D webs:





So what the heck kind of spider builds 3-D webs with perfect circles in their center and creates its own version of the 'burbs? Anyone know?

maybe shell beau would know

she has experience with the black widow you know

Is this black widow thing some inside Lounge joke, or is it possible I was shoving my camera into the home of a deadly spider, traipsing around their webs in my shorts and sockless sandaled feet?
:scared:

place. There have been several stories in the paper and on the news about them. Seems that they lost their hidey holes and homes when Katrina blew through. When our old homes and buildings were flattened, the poor creatures lost their hiding places.

You need to be careful with the creepy crawlies around here.

:hi:

I better monitor Bear's insect-eating habits more closely!

then be every vigilant. I found a black widow and her spider nest/web in a black box under the trailer, those webs do seem to be indestructable. Tons of those little sacs of her eggs were in the web in the box, it gave me the creeps.

:hi:

Now you're just making my skin crawl. I see you trying to lessen the revulsion with the waving smiley, but it's too late!

:hide:

and I swear, their webs are so hard to destroy, it's something we should patent, folks could jump from high rises onto the webbing and be saved - not run the risk of it breaking or not stopping their fall, it would stop it, on the money. :silly:

:hi:

i love to see them in the early morning light still glistening with dew

You can hear the 'pops' when you break the strands. :scared:

They're funnel web grass spiders.

Here's a link with some more info:

http://www.everythingabout.net/articles/biology/animals/arthropods/arachnids/spiders/funnelweb_spider/

I imagine them inside these web-dens, with their little red satchels on the end of a stick!

They are big, furry and DANGEROUS. Many a misdiagnosed Brown Recluse or Black Widow bite is from this nasty spider. Here is a link worthy of being passed along:

http://www.hobospider.com/info/index.html

I promise you that after you have had the chance to read that link you will never again feel the need to call em cute. This is one seriously bad bug! Should you encounter one in your home...my advice would be to squish it....even though I know that advice is not at all welcome here in the lounge...just read the link to see why I say this...at least you will be able to better decide how to deal with one should you encounter it. Did I mention that they are most active between 11pm and 1am, the dark being their ally. Many folks get bitten because this guy has no problems crawling up into bed with a sleeping victim.

Shit, I'm going to hermetically seal my whole house and never venture outside again. Scary, scary spiders! Not at all loveable hobos like Charlie Chaplain, but more like the picking up a derranged hitchhiker in a slasher film.
:scared:

You and I are now feeling about the same on this creature.
My tale: About a decade ago a friend had a daughter with a "pet" spider in a large mason jar. The lil gal, 4, named it "Fernando". She fed it bugs from the yard and carried the jar outside with her sometimes. I wanted to know what this big ugly guy was...I had always called them "wolf" spiders for lack of a better name, at least that's what others had called them. After a little on-line research I discovered that Fernando was a female Hobo Spider. A little further research and I found the www.hobospider.com link. Little Gracie, (the 4 year old) no longer has a pet Hobo spider and her family is quite educated about them now. Sadly most folks are not and the spider's numbers are on the increase. They likely came to our shores on ships, hence their prevalence in our port cities. I am no entomologist but I can only believe that global warming has been very good for these guys and their spread may increase over the upcoming years....and yes they scare the hell out of me. You do not want to know the story about how one woke me up one night, I now have double sided sticky tape wrapped on all 4 feet of my bed and I am very anal about NOT letting my blankets fall to the floor!

in my bathroom last week. We live in a rural area so we deal with all kinds of creepy crawlers, including scorpions, that find their way into the house.

a type of wolf spider. Black widow webs look like a spider on acid made them, usually hidden away, not out in the open so much.

I believe those are niduses (or nidi), in which spiders lay eggs.

Episode XXVII: In which Luke Skywalker and Ronald Weasley fight giant spiders ruled by Lord Volde-Vader. I tell ya, it'll slay 'em at the box office!

Maybe meth amphetamine smoking spiders?

The first pictures look like funnel webs, which would make them Agenelidae spiders. The hobo spider is one of them, but there are dozens of species in this family in the US.

The second and third pictures are clearly bowl and doily webs made by Linyphiidae spiders. They are called (not surprisingly) "bowl and doily spiders".



By the way, black widows make 3d webs...called irregular webs. You can tell a widow web by how tough it is (black widows webs are TOUGH!).

Real info about spiders! :think:

I thought they were the same species, since the funnel webs are also 3-D, just on a much smaller scale. I figured the funnel webs were compacted 3-D out of necessity because the grass is only "yea high." So... live and learn! Thanks, ZI! :hi:

sorry that I misspelled "Agelenidae"

but I didn't want to embarrass you on the board. :P

Is it okay if I snag your pictures for my collection? I am a post-doc but I want to apply for a professorial position. Designing an Araneology course would go a long way to padding the resume, and so I need pics for presentation to the class.

If you let me use them, I promise to give credit, of course.

I'm honored! :blush:

I'll pm you my photo credit info.

Right off 59. I live in Biloxi, myself. Howdy, neighbor! :hi:

I am in Jackson/Brandon!! (I really live in Brandon, but it is basically like living in Jackson!)

I hope things are getting along well down there!

Judge for yourself how it's coming along. I took these shots last month, but nothing has changed on this strip. It's right down the road from where I live, I bring my dog to the beach here almost every day.

Biloxi Beach looking east toward Sharkheads. I think this is real close to where Rex the Dinosaur was, although I can't be sure since I was never in Mississippi before Katrina.


Where the Presidential Casino barge was docked, just east of the Coliseum.

how are things down there? Still a lot of junk lying around from Katrina? I was there years ago at the air force base for training and felt really bad for you guys, really bad. It seemed the media ignored you and Gulf Port pretty much.

Cool spider webs though.

been able to move forward! And kick ass!! The coast is coming back!

Don't you hate that cliche' about being "sold down the Mississippi".

Every day another ruin is scooped up and dumped god-only-knows-where. People with money are rebuilding homes on the beach. Waffle Houses are proliferating like bunnies. But for the middle-class and poor homeowners, and for people who lived in destroyed rental housing, it still pretty much sucks all around and not much is being done to help them. :(

maybe you can recognize some of the images of the base in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvDrdvTlu2g

:hi:

to find our way back to the barracks. Our buildng was 1911, the old two story kind. When I was there (1974) there was still stuff from Hurricane Camille.

Thanks.

Check this out that I've had bookmarked:

http://www.wlox.com/Global/category.asp?C=63035&nav=menu40_1_1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaetBNv2xSo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJgeOF7NM8c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvblgF8GPMw

google & youtube are full of video

Storm chasers are nuts. Glad they got these those and put them up. Anything new with rebuilding? (say yes, please say yes. hoping for yes.)?

Watching video 2, measuring water at 85 inches inside house. Anything happening there for you? Pm is ok if you don't want to be public. :hug:

before it stopped
http://s42.photobucket.com/albums/e338/determinedafterstorm/Katrina/?action=view¤t=KatrinaWaterscomingintohouse.flv

this was as it was coming in, looking down on it from the 2nd story window
http://s42.photobucket.com/albums/e338/determinedafterstorm/Katrina/?action=view¤t=Stormfrom2ndstorylookingout.flv

Things are looking good, no start date yet, but I've been told the dome is in production and the permits are being applied for, so that is good (unless they are just pulling my leg).

Maybe by June or July, I'll be out of my land yacht and into something more stable. *fingerscrossed*

It's good to see you :hug: That video is amazing, the roof of that hotel going at 7:15, the storm hadn't really hit by that time.

Mr. UP asked recently about you, "who was that again that posted those videos and how is she doing?" Yippee! News! Cruise mapquest occasionally and I think I saw your mansion on the aerial image way. It would be really nice to see a dome instead (I know, I even need to say that?).

UPJr just got 2nd quarter college grades and we are not happy. If doesn't improve next quarter they may pull financial aid. It was a combination of teacher dislike (so don't hand in work the way teacher wanted and don't show work on math assignments like teacher wanted, just results), a new love interest, and winter blues. Oh well, Jr is a strong person and hopefully will learn that a 1.0 causes more trouble than it is worth. Pets are easier.

Best of luck with permits and go to bed.

Wow, what link is that - I need to go look.

Keep the fingers crossed and say some prayers to the winds or the gods or god that I can maintain my sanity and continue to patiently wait (without going nuts) for this to happen - 15 months of working on this, you think its about time.

Jr. will get the hint, tell him the best way to handle a teacher that annoys you is to show them up, I always did - made me go out of my way to prove them wrong and how good I was. ;)

:hug:

mapquest.com type in name of neighboring town, then move the map because they put a red star on the location (hard to see through it). There is a place at top right that says aerial which gives satellite bit. I compared mapquests satellite and yahoo maps satellite earlier in the month. Some of yahoo's (or was is google? I'm thinking googlemaps) were pre Sept 2005, while mapquests were post. You can zoom in pretty close.

Worst way to handle a teacher that annoys you is to show up, glare, and don't turn any work, just to show her.

I wasn't here yesterday.

I never knew the Coast before the storm, but I could place every one of those disaster shots. The loss down here is excruciating.

the Coast was alive and for the most part beautiful, the wealthy of this region need to find a way to provide affordable housing or we flunkies won't be able to stick around to serve 'em. x(

:hi:

and then couldn't bring myself to watch the links you posted until today. Those were bad, but the shock between the before and afters without seeing the storm happen is like having your ears boxed into a concussion. :cry:

I've been in the ear boxed state for months now x(

:hi:

Shelob:



Lolth

http://www.mopo.ca/2007/02/video-spiders-on-drugs-hinterland-whos.html

better link to video:
http://www.mopo.ca/clips/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=-492

:rofl:

this is REALLY well done, and incredibly funny.

to call a "funnel spider". The others, I don't know.

called them grass or trapdoor spiders. Not sure what their real name is but the ones here in Maine are harmless. Occasionally I have seen them make webs between inner and storm windows of my dad's old farmhouse.

I grew up in Massachusetts and I remember something like the ground spiders. But the 3-D web threw me. I thought it was the same spider. As Bugs Bunny would say, "What a maroon!"

Link for more info:

http://www.everythingabout.net/articles/biology/animals/arthropods/arachnids/spiders/funnelweb_spider/

D'oh!

I knew such a compelling title would draw you out. My evil plan worked! :evilgrin:

Totally cool, learning that their webs can be used as a coagulant.