I read something this morning about Kleptoparasite spiders. This spider resembles one of them. Doggone it! That was one of the PDFs I didn't bother to save or take notes on. I'm using a new system to take notes and save bibliographic information from Google Scholar Searches, using Org-mode, BibTeX, and Cb2bib. Should've.
It seems noteworthy that the web of the silver bodied spider (the putative kleptoparasite) was butted right up against the web of the Crab Spider.
The webs were above a clothesline outside our apartment. Taken using a Canon SD1100 IS, with CHDK hacked firmware.
Hi Alan,
ReplyDeleteVery nice spider photos. The yellow one is Gasteracantha sp. (Araneidae). I remember seeing similar spiders at my house on Mt. Tapochau during the lat 1990's. Not sure if it was this species. Haven't seen any of these spiders on Guam, but Hawaii has two species.
The tiny silver spider is Argyrodes sp. (Therediidae). And your right. These are kleptoparasites that commnly hang out in webs of larger spiders.
John Furey says he has seen a red and white crab spider on Saipan, as well.
ReplyDeleteHi Alan,
ReplyDeleteThe yellow spider is Gasteracantha cancriformis (Linnaeus, 1758). I saw exactly one on Guam back in the 1980s, and have not seen one there since. The silver one is not an Argyrodes, but a Leucauge decorata (Blackwall, 1864)
Cheers,
Alex