#DailySpiderPic: Just the other day I said to @futurebird that I really wanted to find another male _Philodromus marxi_ and today IT HAPPENED. It was ballooning from the arm of a Muskoka chair by the lake, in the same park where I'd found one years ago.

While most running crab spiders here are grey or brown, made to camouflage against tree bark or in the undergrowth, _P. marxi_ males have shiny iridescent abdomens. I think they are stunningly beautiful.

#bugstodon #spiders #RunningCrabSpiders #Araneae #Philodromidae #ArthroBeauty

#DailySpiderPic: night spiders!

A couple big _Larinioides_; a silky _Clubiona_ leaf-curling sac spider; and a running crab spider.

Most of the spiders out and about now were born last year and overwintered. They are reaping a plentiful bounty of midges (family Chironomidae), which have begun to emerge.

#ArthroBeauty #bugstodon #spiders #Araneae #Araneidae #Clubionidae #Philodromidae

The #spider #Tibellus #oblongus (#Philodromidae) has a #Holarcticdistribution and is common in Central Europe, thus not being protected. It prefers #sunexposed #habitats, whether dry or moist, and is a free #hunter that is very well #camouflaged due to its elongated #bodyshape. Y. Korolkova et al. (2023) examined the #venomgland #transcriptome and a venom proteome analysis.

© #StefanFWirth #Rosenthal #Berlin 2025

Ref
Y. Korolkova et al. (2023)
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02703-0

Photos
© S.F. Wirth

I almost forgot it was #MiteMonday! Inspired by @zorbama's shot of a running crab spider, clover mite, and midge all together (https://veganism.social/@zorbama/114373000260983349), here's a running crab spider (_Philodromus_) I found feeding on a clover mite (_Bryobia_). I don't actually often find many arthropods feeding on the adults, though I've seen predatory _Anystis_ mites eating the eggs.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #mites #DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #Acari #Acariformes #Tetranychidae #Bryobiinae #Araneae #Philodromidae

#SpiderSunday: several of the spiders I met on that one warm day last week! A running crab spider (_Philodromus_), a bold jumping spider (_Phidippus audax_), some kind of crab spider in tribe Coriarachnini (_Bassaniana_?), and a good old zebra jumping spider (_Salticus scenicus_) with what looks like most of a mesh-web weaver (family Dictynidae).

#ArthroBeauty #DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #JumpingSpiders #Araneae #Salticidae #Philodromidae #Thomisidae #Dictynidae