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Sierra dome spider (juvenile)

Neriene litigiosa

Description:

Itsy bitsy spider - it's body measures less than 1mm!!! Looks all black to the naked eye, but the wonder of macro exposes it's beautiful silvery spotted abdomen. Much more exciting than the brown recluses I usually find in the house!

Habitat:

Our pantry.

Notes:

I spotted this teeny tiny speck in the pantry - it's one of the tiny spiders that float around on a thread of silk. I popped it into a small yoghurt pot for photos & amazingly they came out!

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10 Comments

KarenL
KarenL 12 years ago

Added to new Spiders of Tennessee mission - http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/9135...

KarenL
KarenL 12 years ago

Thanks Greg! I thought I'd found another one a few days later - unfortunately the macro revealed it was a tick! :(

GregMasteller
GregMasteller 12 years ago

Cool pic of the tiny guy. Love macro stuff. Good find, I have not seen one before.

KarenL
KarenL 12 years ago

There is still a bit of debate on bugguide over the identity of this little guy but I think this is the most likely species as it actually built itself a little dome web in the yoghurt carton!

jp.coelho
jp.coelho 12 years ago

I see you have found the name of this little critter. Nice one! Thanks for the update Karen.

KarenL
KarenL 12 years ago

Updated with ID provided by bugguide.net.

KarenL
KarenL 12 years ago

I've posted this on bugguide.net so I will hopefully be able to narrow the ID down further.

KarenL
KarenL 12 years ago

Thanks jp! The silvery look may be caused by the flash - sadly my eyesight isn't keen enough to tell the true color on this little guy!

jp.coelho
jp.coelho 12 years ago

Teeny tiny speck is an understatement Karen! Nice find! In some of the photos the white(?) spots on its abdomen seem to reflect like, almost silver like or was that just the camera flash?

KarenL
KarenL 12 years ago

I've added another photo to show the spider's size in relation to a 3" diameter (at the top) yoghurt pot.

KarenL
Spotted by
KarenL

Tennessee, USA

Spotted on Dec 30, 2011
Submitted on Dec 30, 2011

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