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Project Noah Nature School
Araneidae, Neoscona sp
A very interesting spider. Its position on the leaf is different of other spiders I've seen. Also, it has a large "hook" in the second pair of legs.
Spotted on Oct 30, 2013
Submitted on Nov 9, 2013
14 Comments
Very interesting spider indeed, it also looks like a Monkey spider.
I'd rather come across a snake! Good photo though!
interesting :)
Thank you very much, Atul.
This is a Male Neoscona sp. .Family Araneidae..an Orb weaver .
Ooh, I want one! :)
Thank you very much, Martin, now I have a starting point to look for an ID.
Lauren, thanks for the link. I don't think it is a harvestman (Opiliones) but a true spider (Araneae).
A harvestman has one body section with no 'waist' while a true spider has two, an abdomen and a cephalothorax separated by a narrow waist. However, this does look a bit like a harvestman with its wobbly and gnarled legs!
This is an orb spider. Male spiders have this hook on the second pair of legs to assist in sperm transfer (actually to hold the female at a distance by locking onto her second pair of legs while he engages sperm transfer) hopefully to escape or delay being eaten. They are called monkey spiders because their resting posture looks like a monkey. Here is another male orb that I saw. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/846...
There are even short legged "primitive" harvestmen spiders. Aaron posted a link the other day with weird Harvestmen that is just mind-blowing…..
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/artour_...
Is this one of those weird weird weird Harvestmen?
Interesting legs!
Wow what a beauty!