#Arachtober 2: I wonder how long I can go without posting a spider? This is a pseudoscorpion from my yard. These bizarre-looking but harmless arachnids live all over the world, but unless you're looking for them you might never see them. They live in caves and under rocks and leaf litter and tree bark and such, and the largest in the world is only about a centimetre long.

#ArthroBeauty #arachnids #pseudoscorpions • #Pseudoscorpiones #Chthoniidae

#Arachtober 3: spider mites (family Tetranychidae)! These tiny herbivorous mites are the bane of gardeners and farmers the world over. Spider mites in the subfamily Tetranychinae leave sheets of a very fine silk they produce, finer than spider silk, over heavily infested plants.

This plant in a nearby park showed the telltale "stippled" look of spider mite feeding on its leaves, and tiny mites could be seen especially on the leaf undersides.

I cannot stress how tiny they are. If you can get a good phone picture of individual mites without magnification, they're probably not spider mites.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #SpiderMites • #Acari #Acariformes #Tetranychidae #Tetranychinae

#Arachtober 4: a representative from the other mite order, Parasitiformes! The parasitiform group Mesostigmata does contain some infamous parasites, but many—like this one here—are soil-dwelling predators.

(Acariformes and Parasitiformes have traditionally been grouped together under Acari, "mites", but in fact they are probably not each other's closest relatives and deserve to be treated as separate groups. Don't look too closely at higher mite classification or you will go mad.)

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites • #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata

Belated #Arachtober 5: this absolutely minute, delicately pink cobweb spider (perhaps a young _Steatoda triangulosa_?) I found under a leaf in the garden while I was looking for anystids. It is so small it could easily be a mite! It has already captured an ant, likely one of the _Prenolepis imparis_ so common in the garden.

#ArthroBeauty #DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Theridiidae

#Arachtober 6: Here's an anystid. They seem to experience a burst of population growth in the fall, not nearly as much as Peak Anystid around June but still noticeable.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites • #Acari #Acariformes #Prostigmata #Anystidae

#Arachtober 7: this mesostig's bristly, pointy face kind of reminds me of a hedgehog. Although similar in colour and body shape, it seems a bit more…rugged than the ones I normally see? More matte and spiky.

#MiteMonday #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites • #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata

#Arachtober 8: a beautiful arabesque orbweaver (_Neoscona arabesca_), found along the Humber Trail near the Oculus. It's an excellent spidering spot I return to a few times a year; here's an earlier blog post about it: <https://nevillepark.ca/2022/09/19/field-journal-spiders-of-the-oculus/>

I hope you can see why I will bike 20 minutes and up, even across town, to look for such dazzling beauties!

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Araneidae

#Arachtober 9: freshly molted _Mecaphesa_ flower crab spider. Wait…

🎶 Freshly molted _Mecaphesa_
Freshly molted _Mecaphesa_
Freshly molted _Mecaphesa_
Right next to its old skin 🎶

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Thomisidae

#Arachtober 10: a tiny juvenile _Mangora_ orbweaver. At this time of year you can find orbweavers at their biggest, but also plenty of little spiders that will be overwintering.

#ArthroBeauty #DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Araneidae

#Arachtober 11: in the same plant where I found a bunch of young _Mangora_, I also found this pirate spider (family Mimetidae)! Note the distinctive row of forward-pointing spines on its front legs, which you won't see with similar spiders like _Platnickina_ (family Theridiidae). These are spider-eating spiders who lure their targets out by, as the family name suggests, mimicking prey. More about them: <https://spiderbytes.org/2015/10/26/pirate-spiders/>

I suspect at least a few of the _Mangora_ will fall prey to this specialized hunter.

#ArthroBeauty #DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #SpiderBehaviour #mimicry • #Araneae #Mimetidae

#Arachtober 12: In some interestingly fungus-covered grass in the swampy meadow by the creek just past the Oculus, I saw lots of _Pardosa_ thin-legged wolf spiders, but they were as jumpy as, well, jumping spiders and it was hard to photograph any. Here's a couple I did get!

These cute little spiders, getting up to ~1cm body length, put the lie to the common misconception that a "wolf spider" is necessarily big, hairy, and bulky. In fact the family Lycosidae has thousands of species all over the world, as varied as their habitats, from large desert burrow-dwellers to these lithe little denizens of marshy undergrowth and rocky shore.

#ArthroBeauty #DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #WolfSpiders #spiders • #Araneae #Lycosidae

#Arachtober 13: while I was in the grass taking the photos I posted yesterday, every movement would send little leafhoppers (family Cicadellidae) springing away. This one leaped right into the web of a tiny _Theridula_ cobweb spider, who quickly seized it.

(At least, I think it's a leafhopper, but true bugs aren't my wheelhouse so please correct me if I'm wrong!)

edit: accidentally the date

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Theridiidae

#Arachtober 14: #RIP Sabella the black widow.

I had her for ten months exactly (https://flipping.rocks/@nev/11157397654673256). Her last molt was about six months ago.

I have added her to my collection.

I didn't have the sort of attachment to her that one has with a pet that, you know, can perceive you are a human being and interact with you and that you can handle and whatnot, but I will miss the bumbling little murderess.  

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Theridiidae

#Arachtober 15: an _Allothrombium_ red velvet mite I found recently. I'd never noticed one missing legs before. This one is missing the front two left legs!

This is an adult. I wonder if mites can regenerate legs between molts like spiders? It's complicated by the fact that many mites have distinct life stages and can change a lot in both body and lifestyle between molts, they don't just get bigger. Should look this up…

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites • #Acari #Acariformes #Trombidiidae

#Arachtober 16: since it's #WeevilWednesday, here's an older photo of mine (posted here: https://flipping.rocks/@nev/110585316967094045), a little red long-legged velvet mite (family Erythraeidae) that in its frantic scurrying about ended up climbing over this slower-moving weevil a few times. I think the weevil is one of the billbugs, genus _Sphenophorus_ (https://inaturalist.ca/taxa/211468-Sphenophorus).

Mites are well known for phoresy (riding on other animals), but this was clearly an accidental and temporary case.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #insects #beetles #weevils • #Acari #Acariformes #Erythraeidae #Coleoptera #Curculionidae

#Arachtober 17: gotta delete old photos on my phone to free up space, so, from early June, here's a couple of rather unlucky running crab spiders (family Philodromidae) who don't even have eight legs between them!

As I explain in a blog post (https://nevillepark.ca/2024/05/24/i-can-put-my-leg-back-on-you-cant-how-spiders-regrow-limbs/), spiders can regenerate detached legs when they molt. But typical spiders (basically, not tarantulas, trapdoors, purse-webs, etc.) stop molting once they become sexually mature. If they lose a leg after that, they're stuck that way. And this often happens with highly mobile spiders like running crab spiders.

(The male in the second picture has regenerated his back right leg recently. If he still had molts left, it would gradually gain colour and become longer and eventually indistinguishable from its counterpart.)

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Philodromidae

#Arachtober 18: yesterday I was showering and only noticed this cellar spider (family Pholcidae; I assume _Pholcus phalangioides_) when it was half-drowned. I fished it out and laid it on a piece of toilet paper, and when it was dry gave it a Q-tip dipped in slightly diluted honey, which it grasped with front legs and drank. (Anecdotally, spiders seem to prefer sugary water to plain. I'd typically use sugar syrup, but didn't have any prepared.)

Later saw it in a couple different places around the bathroom, and now I don't know where it's gone; I hope the cat didn't get it.

Cellar spiders are not typically thought of as "cute" spiders, but look at their eyes! They look like ._. (well, more accurately, ∵ .. ∵)

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Pholcidae

#Arachtober 19: one of my favourite finds this year, a hister beetle (family Histeridae) carrying several phoretic (hitchhiking) Uropodina mites attached via "anal pedicels", tough but stretchy stalks formed from special secretions from glands in…well, you can probably guess where. The mites are harmless to the beetle and use it to disperse to new habitats.

More on phoresy in Uropodina: https://doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2023.2288847  

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #phoresy #AnalPedicel • #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata #Uropodina

#Arachtober 20: the impressive mouthparts of a male _Tetragnatha_ long-jawed orbweaver!

Both chelicerae and pedipalps are multi-segmented and jointed—true for all spiders, but easier to see here because of the exaggerated anatomy. It points to their evolutionary/developmental origin as modified legs (what else?).

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Tetragnathidae

#Arachtober 21: Happy #MiteMonday! Here's a snout mite (family Bdellidae) snacking on a long-legged velvet mite (family Erythraeidae). Taken back in June.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites • #Acari #Acariformes #Prostigmata #Bdellidae #Erythraeidae

#Arachtober 22: from June, one of my favourite "lifers" this year, a pair of _Gea heptagon_ orbweavers!! Found in the marshy meadow just past the Oculus. Such unique-looking orbweavers.

#ArthroBeauty #DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Araneidae

#Arachtober 23: from June, a long-legged velvet mite (family Erythraeidae) climbs into a silk retreat over the exuvia (molted exoskeleton) of the jumping spider (family Salticidae) that previously occupied it. This is not the first time I have seen mites using old spider retreats for shelter!

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #MiteBehaviour #DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #JumpingSpiders #spiders • #Acari #Acariformes #Erythraeidae #Araneae #Salticidae

#Arachtober 24: this handsome, feisty crab spider (_Xysticus_? Coriarachnini, anyway) was all like "I'll fite u!!!…unless you're an incomprehensibly immense weird-feeling alien being in which case I'll just stay very still and hope you go away."

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #CrabSpiders #spiders • #Araneae #Thomisidae

#Arachtober 25 (which I forgot to do yesterday): ever feel you're being watched…?

This cute little jumper, probably _Eris floridana_, was peeking out from between flakes of pine bark.

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #JumpingSpiders #spiders • #Araneae #Salticidae

#Arachtober 26: the cool weather is back and so the clover mites (_Bryobia_) are out! The tiny juvenile spiders plentiful now seemed unbothered by the crowds of mites scrambling around them.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #CloverMites #DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Acari #Tetranychidae #Bryobiinae #Araneae #Tetragnathidae

#Arachtober 27: have I done a _Clubiona_ yet this month? These sleek, stealthy spiders, about a centimetre long, can be found prowling around after dark. The ones I see range in colour from fawn to dark red-brown, and the chelicerae are always dark.

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Clubionidae

#Arachtober 28: the last #MiteMonday of Arachtober! On a rock teeming with clover mites I found several of their frequent predators, whirligig mites (family Anystidae). This one was busy cleaning its feet.

#DailyMiteVid #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites • #Acari #Acariformes #Anystidae

#Arachtober 29: yesterday in High Park, I was lurking in the shrubs and low vegetation on Hawk Hill hoping to see juncos and chickadees, looking for a spot to kneel that didn't have rabbit poop, when I came across something I've wanted to see for years—a wolf spider in a burrow! Many wolf spiders burrow, e.g. _Geolycosa_ (which I think this one might be), but I'd never actually found such a burrow myself.

The spider was small, no larger than the typical _Pardosa_ I see, and while timid it stayed at the entrance to the burrow. It was hard to get good light in there and this was the best photo I could get. I will undoubtedly go back to look for more!

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Lycosidae

#Arachtober 30: from July, a pair of _Tetragnatha_ long-jawed orbweavers mating. They normally mate hanging midair in a web, which makes them difficult to photograph; but this pair ended up on a solid surface, letting me get some better photos.

They mate face-to-face with jaws locked together, while the male reaches between them with a long pedipalp to transfer sperm to the female's epigyne (genital opening). The end of a mature male spider's pedipalp is an extraordinarily complex and dynamic organ, with bits that inflate to twist its configuration and allow it to fit into the epigyne, and every species is a little different. You can see illustrations of different _Tetragnatha_ palps here: https://araneae.nmbe.ch/specieskey/325/Tetragnatha

(The testes are not hooked up to the pedipalps or anything; the male's genital opening is in the abdomen, like the female's. Before mating, the male deposits sperm on a bit of web and draws it up into the pedipalps, as if with an extremely complicated turkey baster. Edit: for pics, see https://flipping.rocks/@nev/112636096285259211)

Spider sex is one of the most interesting things about spiders.

I'd say the pics are NSFW but if your co-workers fully recognize what they're looking at, you're probably arachnologists and this IS your job.

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #SpiderSex • #Araneae #Tetragnathidae