Classification?

Tiassa

Tiassa

Let us not launch the boat ...
Valued Senior Member
spider.jpg

One dead spider

Understanding the following:

(1) I am mildly arachnaphobic, rooted in an aesthetic distaste for arthropoda in general. In fact, in a prior version of this post during which my browser collapsed (always compose in the text editor, he says, as he types into the PHP window), I was dealing with a revelation concerning the phobia.
(2) I live near Seattle; we have virtually no poisonous critters taxing us up here. Spiders that can hurt me seem imported anomalies, and the nasty snakes are on the other side of the mountain.
(3) As such, I simply don't recognize this critter, even though I have this foreboding feeling that I should.

At any rate, the simple question is: What is this one?

But I mentioned a revelation, and that needs to be taken over to the Ethics Forum; I haven't been a good scientist. Unfortunately, my arachnaphobia compelled me to knowingly undertake a process that would result in the death of the spider; if I'd thought about it, I could easily have found another way. In the end, I wanted to immobilize it without smashing it. I cannot explain to anyone what made me think my methodology (containing the spider in 99% isopropyl alcohol) was a good idea. In the end, it fought back for about thirty minutes before succumbing; I feel badly about that.

However, what set me off was the above 3 points. I don't recognize it, so I don't know whether or not it can hurt me or my daughter, and before I go panicking and figuring out how many of them there are in the neighborhood, I figure I ought to at least find out what it is. (I actually don't know the names of the spiders I do recognize, generally speaking, but that's hopefully beside the point for now.) I'm used to seeing similar creatures, but the ones I'm used to haven't that particular coloration on the abdomen, and the abdomen is flat by comparison in profile; I'm used to bulbous, almost matronly spiders in the windows ....

At any rate, I owe apologies to both the spider and to more legitimate scientists everywhere for my crappy methodology. And beyond that, I owe a general apology for bothering with the topic at all, but truly ... I just don't recognize this one, and I'm not used to seeing it on my house ....

thanx much,
Tiassa :cool:

Edit: Image update.
 
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sorry, don't know its name. i can name 30-something phylla of worms but no spiders. maybe it's a wolf spider. i see those in my house all the time. they make impressive webs which makes you think tropical but so far none of us have died.
 
*Looks in "The Audubon Society Feild Guide for North American Insects and Spiders" book*

Hum can't tell could be alot of these guys, how big is it would really help. Is it black or brown can't tell to well from the photo does is have strips?
 
Dimensions

I updated the image ... maybe that's a better view. Black and brown, 10 - 12 mm across. For scale, that's a small Gerber baby food jar, a wooden barbecue skewer, and my living room carpet.

I feel badly. I tried combing Google for spider images, but it just creeps me out severely after a while. Snakes, such as mambas, look evil because we anthropomorphize them; certain snakes smile by the nature of the construction of their head--people interpret that as being evil, and given that snake bites hurt that badly, no wonder. But spiders ... whoa ... nature did very well with that design. Watching a spider rear back into a combative pose actually gives me the creeps. Utterly irrational and indescribably visceral.

:m:,
Tiassa :cool:
 
sorry to say this but is could be a black widow, younger black widows are not black but become darker from very light white striped brown or bash with each molting. they do extend up the west cost, only if its guarding a egg sake would it attempt to bit.

Flip it over, take a picture.
 
Thank you ... unfortunately (or fortunately)

I'll flip it and get the image if you still want, but as I pop over to Google to look through images of black widows, I'm thinking no.

Part of what snagged my attention was that as it dropped from the eve, I saw it in profile. Its abdomen is not bulbous like the black widow, and there is no mark on the underside.

You know how science fiction designs some spacecraft around animals--e.g. frogs, fish, &c? The abdomen looks like that--if you turned a spider into a spaceship.

Ironically, though, black widow was my first thought. It's that pattern on the abdomen that gets me; that's the reason I feel like I should recognize this spider. I'm sure I've seen it before on Discovery or PBS, and I feel like there's some reason I'm supposed to remember this creature.

But I don't recognize it as something I've ever seen "in the flesh".

I'll look around for a tape measure and lay the thing out for a couple more pictures if I get the time. I'm not seeing any more of these things yet, so my sense of "potential" alarm is disappating.

:m:,
Tiassa :cool:
 
It's a crab spider, families Thomisidae and Philodromidae . Harmless little guys that can change their colour (and commonly do) to ambush their prey. Usually found in the garden on flowers waiting for an unsuspecting insect that is looking for some sweet sweet nectar.

Info here.

Wellcooked: The abdomen is not shiny enough for it to be a black widow...they have a glossy shine to them. The legs are also improperly proportioned.
 
Thank you ....

It's odd ... I should have seen these guys before at some point in my life. I've lived around the pacific northwest my whole life.

Thank you very much, Idle Mind ... now I can just work on not destroying them for the mere crime of existing within the range of my senses.

Absolutely wild ... spiders are just downright trippy.

Thank you, thank you, thank you ....

:m:,
Tiassa :cool:
 
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