Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Two Tailed or Tree Trunk Spider

Description:

Small spider about 1 cm in length with long spinnerets of the Family Hersiliidae or Two-Tailed Spiders. It was spotted on a Turkey Tail Fungus shelf, but probably lives on the bark of the tree where it would be well camouflaged. The cephalothorax has the face of a little old woman!

Habitat:

Forest of the Sumidero Canyon National Park, Chiapas, Mexico.

Notes:

The tree trunk spiders are members of the tropical and semi-tropical Family Hersiliidae. There are about 150 species in this family. These spiders have two very prominent spinnerets that are almost as long as their abdomen. So they are also sometimes known as "two-tailed spiders." They range in size from about 10 mm (0.4 inch) to 18 mm (0.7 inch) long. Being very well camouflaged for life on the varicolored trunks of trees, they have an interesting way of capturing prey. Rather than making a web that captures prey directly, they lay a light coating of threads over an area of tree bark and wait hidden in plain sight for an insect to stray onto that patch. Once that occurs, they direct their spinnerets toward their prey and circle it; all the while casting silk on it. When the hapless insect has been thoroughly immobilized, they can bite it through its new shroud. From Wikipedia.

1 Species ID Suggestions

MartinL
MartinL 11 years ago
Two-tailed spider
Tamopsis sp. Two-tailed spider | Flickr - Photo Sharing!


Sign in to suggest organism ID

3 Comments

LaurenZarate
LaurenZarate 11 years ago

Thank you so much Martin, I learned many things I didn't know about this spider. I'm so glad that I saw it. Do you know if Tamopsis has been reported for Mexico?

LaurenZarate
LaurenZarate 11 years ago

Thank you Smith's Zoo...the cephalothorax has the face of a little old woman!

Smith'sZoo
Smith'sZoo 11 years ago

Beauty!

LaurenZarate
Spotted by
LaurenZarate

Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico

Spotted on Jan 20, 2013
Submitted on Jan 28, 2013

Related Spottings

Two-tailed Spider Tree-trunk/Two-tailed Spider Two-tailed Spider Two-tailed spider

Nearby Spottings

Beauty even in Death Turkey Tail Fungus Stink Bug Enormous Leaf-Footed Bug

Reference

Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team