Look what I spotted

This afternoon, James was helping some friends in their yard so I took my garden shears outside and set to work. Isn't our Galeana red sage AWESOME?! I was cutting dead stems and admiring the blooms when I happened to see....

...can YOU see her?

Yes, a vigilant green lynx spider mama, guarding her egg sac. I just love finding surprises in the plants that thrive in our Wildscape. Especially those of the eight-legged kind. 

Back yard spider update

Our yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia) mama has now laid her second egg sac. She's the one who moved twice in the back yard and ended up near the bird bath (by my office window) that's surrounded by lantana and salvias. 

She laid her first egg sac (above) on the brick wall on our house. I wasn't too impressed with her choice of location. Yesterday, I noticed her gone from her web. Her abdomen had gotten pretty big so I knew she was due any day. I looked around and, sure enough, there she was, up on the house siding, guarding her brand new egg sac. Again, I was not impressed with her second location either. 

This winter, I'll the do the best I can at watching over the sacs. The spider mama in the front yard laid (more like hid) two of hers in the crepe myrtle. We did haven't found her third one. 

Long-legged beauty

White watering this morning, James spotted this long-legged beauty–a yellow garden argiope (Argiope aurantia), also commonly called a yellow garden spider, banana spider and writing spider. She built her web in the front yard among the crape myrtle, woolly butterfly bush and blue mistflowers. Yes, she's a she. The female of this species is ALWAYS the larger of the two sexes. Soon the puny little male will show up at the edge of her web. They'll mate, and then he'll take off. 

P.S. The "zipper" in her orb web has a name: the stabilimentum. Biologists aren't sure of its real purpose, but the thick strands could warn birds not to fly into the web, and/or they might reflect ultraviolet light, which attracts insects.
 

Spider mom

Yesterday, I met this wolf spider lady in our garage. She was two thirds up the inside of our back garage door. Right away, I noticed that her abdomen was bumpy. Kiddos! I took a few photos. Then I decided I'd better move her to a safer place because I noticed her slip a few times. She didn't have a whole lot of spiderlings on her backside. In the beginning, though, she would have. That's what this species does. Female wolf spiders carry their egg sacs around with them, using their spinnerets. After growing from embryos into spiderlings, they break out and scramble onto her back. There they stay. The ones that don't fall off, that is, or get eaten by someone else. That's why there's only a few left on this mother, and they're the biggest wolf spiderlings I've ever seen still with their mom.

I nudged her onto a blue plastic lid and took a few more photos. Then I set everyone inside a larger container. I wanted to show James before I let them go. After he got home and peeked, then I set the family outside beneath a lawn mower. I checked back later in the day, and the spider mother was still there. After her children disperse, she may live a while longer, then die. The cycle of life!

Blown-up inset from photo above

Blown-up inset from photo above

I love spiders

Wolf spider

I know. I know. A lot of folks hate abhor despise dislike hate hate HATE spiders. Not me! Instead of running, I always stop and get a closer look when I meet one. The handsome he wolf (above) crossed my path in December, but I never got around to posting his portraits.

The lovely she crab (below) was clinging to our front door a few days ago, and James just happened to spot her. She might be with children because her abdomen is so LARGE.

So, you might ask, how do I know he's a he and she's a she? Well, a spider's pedipalps reveal their destiny in life....whether they'll lay eggs or provide the necessary sperm to create them. 

OK, I hear you. A definition's needed.

Pedipalps: A spider's extra pair of appendages used for feeling and holding prey.

Crab spider

To determine a spider's sex, look at the tip of its pedipalps. A male has club-tipped pedipalps (like a wood golf club), and a female doesn't. Look closely at the top photo, and you'll see the wolf spider's club-tipped palps.

RIP, spider friend

Our dryer went out temporarily this afternoon so I dumped our wet clothes and sheets into a basket, then walked cross the street to a neighbor's house to borrow her dryer. On the way, a glossy black thing on our driveway caught my eye. A spider! But on his last legs. Alas, a closer inspection told me he was DEAD. On my return trip, I went in the house for my camera. Even though he was no longer among the living, he certainly deserved to be documented.

This handsome fellow (yes, it's a male) likely belongs to Cytaucheniidae, a wafer trapdoor family of spiders. I found a female nearly five years ago ("Trapdoor spider"), so I know we have them in our Wildscape. They're very elusive and rarely spotted because they stay underground mostly. Their burrows are hard to find, too, because they construct a pliable, wafer-thin lid made of silk to camouflage the entrance hole. This guy was likely out, looking for a lady. RIP!

This is why we don't mow the Meadow!

We went outside after supper and wandered in the Meadow, where we watched butterflies. Dragonflies. Damselflies. So much going on! Then I happened to spy something yellow in the grass. A sulphur? Well, sorta. A banded argiope had caught it on her web! Low in the grass, the spider had spun her orbweb. Awesome.

You could barely see her in the grass. She blended in well.

Across the Meadow, we spotted another argiope on her web! She was just about to nab a moth, but it got away. Good for the moth but not for the spider. 

AND THEN, I happened to look down and spy....this COOL COOL COOL caterpillar! James spotted a second, then I saw a third. Back in the house, James looked through our caterpillar field guide and figured out that they're a white-lined sphinx moth species (Hyles lineata). We'd never seen a caterpillar like it before. Naturally, I told Peyton, our seventh-grade neighbor who LOVES caterpillars, about this species!

 

James agrees that it's better NOT to mow (except for a few walking paths) the Meadow. So much life has a place to live life when we don't!

Exciting news on the spider front!

James forwarded me a link yesterday with some exciting spider news. Well, it's exciting if you love spiders like I do. Here's the scoop..."New family of spiders found in Oregon cave," reports Jeff Barnard with the Associated Press:

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP)—Amateur cave explorers have found a new family of spiders in the Siskiyou Mountains of Southern Oregon, and scientists have dubbed it Trogloraptor— Latin for cave robber—for their fearsome front claws.

The spelunkers sent specimens to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, which has the West Coast's largest collection of spiders. Entomologists there say the spider—reddish brown and the size of a half dollar—evolved so distinctly that it requires its own taxonomic family—the first new spider family found in North America since the 1870s.

Click the link above and read the rest of Barnard's article!

Flowers and spiders

The purple clematis vine (Clematis pitcheri) is blooming!

The calylophus is still blooming.

And so are our volunteer dayflowers. They've taken over several patches in our beds, but it's fine with us. Their blooms are so sweet and pretty.

I found this little orbweaver and her web among the mealycup sage branches.

 

And tiny spiderling was traveling between tree branches....

More plants!

We can't resist. We bought more plants in a sale room at an area nursery. In all, we came home with 19 new additions. Salvias, yarrow, rubeckia, ruellia, dwarf myrtle, purple skullcap, maybe coreopsis. By day's end, James had them all in the ground! I am WAY behind on labeling plants in our Wildscape.

At a roadside pottery/ironwork stand, I also bought a wooden table to set out by our hammock. A bargain at $2! We got it home, and I carried it out to the patio so I could wash off the mud and cobwebs. Uh oh. First, I saw the two egg sacs. Then I saw the shiny black legs and body. A black widow mama! She's not there any more, and that's all I'm gonna say. End of story.

A tarantula or two visits

Tarantula in our neighbor's back yard (Photo by Eden)

Last week, our neighbor Butch and his grandson Bowie came by after supper with a surprise to show me. Bowie held up a gallon-sized plastic bag, and inside was a big, hairy tarantula--a Texas brown (Aphonopelma hentzi or similar species). I was thrilled! I held up the bag for a closer look....hmm, a male most definitely. How did I know? Males have a backward spur on the underside of each front leg. They are more likely to be out and about, looking for a date. Females, on the other hand, stay in underground burrows and only venture out at night for food. 

Usually, that is. The next day, our neighbor Eden called. "Miss Sheryl, there's a tarantula in our back yard!" she told me. 


"I'll be right over!" I exclaimed. I pulled down a large critter container (left over from my days of raising and keeping a few tarantulas) and headed over to her house. She'd captured the spider under a plastic cup. I scooped it inside my container and took a close look...a female! My first ever of a Texas species. In all my years, I'd only met male Texas browns. 


As neat as tarantulas are, I didn't want to get back into keeping them. I decided I'd much prefer to release her in a safe place, preferably near that good-looking guy we'd met the evening before.

Photo by Eden

So the next day, I called Butch's wife, Linda, and she told me that Bowie had given the tarantula to his science teacher. I got the teacher's number and phoned him. Oh, my, Mike was on a bus, loaded with fifth graders, headed to Corpus Christi for the class's annual field trip. I asked him about the tarantula, and he said he'd released it on his place. Could I bring my female later, after he'd gotten back home and rested up? Sure, he said.

In the meantime, we offered our guest a moth or two. Nope, she declined. Then Sunday evening, we found a cricket in the garage. YES! She heartily ate it right up (above). 

Yesterday evening, before we took her out to Mike's place northwest of town, I photographed our lady tarantula in her container as best I could...isn't she beautiful?
 

No spurs on her front legs....

At Mike's place, he showed us where he released the male tarantula...

Out she goes! Female tarantulas can live 20 or more years (adult males, only a few months). She should survive fine once she gets established in her new surroundings. Thanks, Butch, Bowie, Eden, and Mike!

UPDATE
I came across a recent blog post about Texas tarantulas on Insects in the City: "Tarantulas go a-courting," June 7, 2012.

Adventures here in our Wildscape

BEAUTIFUL DAY! Thank you, Lord! I took my camera outside, and it was just one adventure after another in our lovely Wildscape!

 

James moved "furniture" around, namely our concrete bench.

It's amazing what lives UNDER ROCKS. James pointed out this pseudoscorpion. He was a little booger to photograph because he wouldn't stand still. I was going to delete this photo, then I spotted the little spider lurking on the side of the rock. See it?

Under one big rock, we saw these larvae, likely an ant species. James wanted to go fetch killing powder, but I asked him nicely to hold off.

Then I saw this little rough earth snake, which had also been living under the rock. After I snapped a few frames, it slithered down into the leaf debris.

I believe this is wild poinsettia (Euphorbia heterophylla).

An orange sulphur (Colias eurytheme)

You just never know what's lurking among the green leaves. I spotted this green crab spider, poised and ready to grab a passing meal.

I saw something buzzing over the mulch in our back yard garden and managed to get one good shot of this scarab beetle. Perhaps Euphoria inda? 

The coral honeysuckle has been blooming a little.

And the spiderwort 'Purple' is about to burst with blooms!