Spiders at the USU Green Canyon Field Station

Yesterday, after a big lunch at Tandoori Oven, Lori Spears and I went to the USU field station at the mouth of Green Canyon to search for spiders in sagebrush shrubs. Lori and I have spent many hours in the field studying spiders in sagebrush habitat for our graduate research, but we felt we needed more spider pictures for future research presentations, including our defense.

We probably didn't chose the best time of day (it was quite hot) but we couldn't wait to look for spiders. However, we did find some jumping spiders (Sassacus papenhoei, Pelegrina aenola), crab spiders (Xysticus spp., Misumena vatia), a theridiid (Theridion petraeum), an araneid (Metepeira foxi) and a philodromid (Philodromus histrio). I had a hard time taking pictures of the jumping spiders, because most of them were still immature and quite active. However, I did find a Pelegrina aenola that allowed me to get close enough.

 

Pelegrina jumping spider

Metepeira in her web

I found a male goldenrod crab spider (Misumena vatia) on the tip a sagebrush branch. People are usually more familiar with the female of this species, who may be white or yellow depending on the flower she is sitting on. This male had produced a floating line of silk from his spinnerets, his posture much like that of an immature spider about to balloon. When his line caught the branch tip of a neighboring shrub, he turned around, held the line with one of his front legs, and pulled it as if checking that it was safely attached . A second later, he was traveling along the silk line to another shrub.