Insect Picture of the Day

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Platycryptus undatus! This is one of my favorite spiders. (I showed one of these last year.) In the picture last year, I mentoned that they have a very recognizable chevron pattern down their back. This female is somewhat small and her chevrons aren’t perfectly delineated, but you can sort of make them out nonetheless.

This spider has been living inside the screen of the stairwell of my house. I kept meaning to catch her and release her outside, because houses are like deserts to hunting bugs: there’s often no water, and little prey. When I cornered her to catch her, she looked right at me and said “Hey! I’m doing just fine here without your help, bozo!”

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You can sort of tell she’s saying that from this photo. See how wide her abdomen is? What you can’t really tell from this picture is that her abdomen is swollen upwards as well as side-to-side: this means that she is very pregnant, and that means that she is getting plenty of water and prey!

I left her in the window. As of this writing, that was a week ago, and she’s still up there. I kept an eye out for prey, and it turns out that in the morning light, any bugs that got into the house overnight move to the East- and  South-facing windows. The stairwell faces South, and sure enough, it’s a spider bed and breakfast!

That didn’t explain the water situation, though. She is clearly getting it from somewhere: unlike orb weavers, jumping spiders can’t get all their moisture from their prey, and have to augment their diet with fresh water. Then it hit me: that window is directly above one of the sprinkler heads on my lawn. Three times a week, I spray water on her screen for several minutes!

So there you have it. Cute, adaptable, and obviously smarter than me. That’s why I like Platycryptus undatus.

P.S. She’s about 7mm long. Big enough to qualify as a “big” spider if you’re afraid of them, but small enough to qualify as a “cute little spider” if you’re not.

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Sing it with me! The ladybug larvae on the bus go… um… they go… um…

What do the ladybug larvae on the bus do?

Reader Michelle from the UK sent this picture in right after ladybug vs. aphid week, and I wish I’d gotten it up at the time, because Ladybugs were totally taking the “we’re cute!” title and the aphids would have LOVED to enter this photo in the “but your babies are ohmygoodness ugly” category.

The ladybugs would have simply smiled. That might be a bug only a mother could love, but guess what? Ladybug larvae eat aphids, too. RAWR! (Admittedy, it’s a very tiny RAWR.)

THAT’S what the ladybug larvae on the bus do!

The ladybug larvae on the bus make the tiniest RAWR!, the tiniest RAWR!, the tiniest RAWR!

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Sometimes the best identification you can make is “it’s a bug!”… but sometimes you can expand very slightly on this. Mahala Johnson sends in this picture of a mystery bug that I am upgrading to “it’s a cool looking bug!”

She suggests perhaps that it might be an aphid, but online research turns up no such beastie that would wear striped socks like this one.

Any takers on an ID?

Thanks, Mahala!

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Lolcats have a ceiling cat and a basement cat (and loldogs have a walldog). It’s only fitting that InsectPOD should have a bug for some side of the room. I like the thought of combining the spiritual loftiness of ceiling cat with the sinister schemings of basement cat into a single entity, so I give you: ceiling spider.

Also, it was actually on the ceiling when I took the picture.

This spider has moved into my house following the cloud of gnats, beetles and midges that came in last week. He’s about 4mm long (2cm legspan). The short “fifth pair” of legs by his face are actually his pedipalps, which is how we know this little guy is a, well, a guy.

He really gets around; I saw him in the kitchen last night and 20 minutes later he had returned to his station by the living room light. He moves fast when he wants to. His hunting style is pretty straightforward: he goes and stands still in a well-lit area, and when a gnat lands within about a centimeter of his face, he lunges forward and grabs it. This means that although he can’t see very far, he hunts by eyesight. This ambushy behavior combined with the long legs and fair¹ eyesight lead me to believe that it is a cousin to the crab spider family.

Either way, he’s in my house, eating my bugs, and that makes him a Good Guy™.

Addendum:

Sharp-eyed reader tceisele notes: Hey, this might be a three-fer! It looks like there is a mite on the abdomen of the doomed gnat!

I started to write this reply in the comments, but it’s so full of Gratuitous Educational Content that I figured I’d merge it into the post proper. Also, I get to talk about poop, so you know it’s extra postworthy. My response:

Oooh, you may be right!

My first thought was that it was gnat poop: spider prey often “let go” when eaten. This dot is on the side of the abdomen, however, so unless this gnat had a colostomy beforehand….

Another possibility is that it could be a puncture wound. I’ve seen wounds like that ooze when jumping spiders miss their killing bite. Jumpers usually try to envenomate at the back of the neck, most insects are incapable of attacking something holding onto the back of their head, and the venom goes right into the spinal ganglia causing quick brain death at best and paralysis at worst. Sometimes they miss, and end up biting the abdomen. They’ll hold onto the bug as the venom works its eventual way through the innards; once it’s dead they’ll turn it around and bite it in a more convenient spot for feeding.

I see three problems with my second theory as well: first, that drop of ooze is way too big for the size of bite this spider can inflict; second, there is no matching drop on the other side of the bug (remember that chelicerata have opposable, scissoring jaws); and third, the bug is translucent green: extrails² would tend to be clear or green as well.

So… yeah! I think you’re probably right. The size and specularity of the dot is also consistent with the kinds of mites we get around here, so it is indeed entirely possible. Thanks!

¹ I say fair eyesight, but remember that we’re talking about spiders here. Many web-dwelling spiders are mostly blind and hunt by vibrations, while wolf and jumping spiders have the best vision of spiders–they can see clearly up to a meter away and can see movement from several meters out. This is a spider that can see and hunt by eyesight, but can’t run or jump, only pounce–so it can only see a centimeter or two away.

² entrails that have failed to stay en.

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A few nights ago I noticed something trundling across the carpet into the downstairs bathroom. I grabbed my camera and a flashlight and snapped this shot of an assassin bug nymph. I’m not really sure if it needed to go potty or if it was just up to get a glass of water.

If you haven’t seen these nymphs before on the site, they’re actually jet black: the white coating is lint and dirt that they glue to themselves with spittle to form camouflage. When they molt into their final adult form, they’ll discard the camouflage as well and be a beautiful, shiny blue-black.

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Last night I was up late, with a single light on in the living room. It’s Summer now, so we had all the windows open, and even though there are screens a good number of bugs find their way into the house. At one point I noticed this small beetle (about 5mm long) trundling across the carpet. When I got down close and took some pictures, I noticed a small gnatlike bug walking across the carpet. Suddenly I became aware of tiny movements all around me: in the square meter of carpet around this beetle, there were perhaps two dozen gnats, beetles, and assorted other bugs. Yikes!

Then something plopped on my head. It bounced immediately to the carpet: another tiny beetle! What on Earth…?

I looked up. I was directly under the only light still burning in the house, and it was aswarm with tiny flying bugs. Every once in a while one would hit the glass cover with a solid tik sound and fall, stunned, to the carpet below.

The other day tceisele mentioned that he planned to do a “square foot” project, and count all the bugs he can find in a square foot of his yard. I think this is a fascinating project idea. Is it cheating if I bait them like this?

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Everybody give a warm welcome to Brian Lyles, who submitted this image of a spider. He also has this to say:

As I was rushing around tonight, getting ready for my trip to Mississippi, I
stopped in mid-rush because I saw something scurry off under my mother’s
desk. With a little coaxing, I got this little guy to show his face, and
got several pictures of him. Unfortunately, the light wasn’t the best and my
camera isn’t the best for such small objects, but I did get one decent
shot. I have no idea what kind of spider it is, I’m the “ooooh that’s cool
looking!” kind of person, not the “thats a so-and-so spider” kind of
person. But anyway, this guy (girl?) has a half inch long body and with
his/her legs (s)he’s almost an inch long. Hope you like the pic, and good
luck with the ID.

Now, I’ve got food to make, clothes to pack, and sleep to get, and a half
hour less, so I’m gonna go back to that.

It’s a great shot, Brian! Thanks for stopping the packing preparations to take a photo.

As for ID… any takers? The eyes look small so I’m thinking not a wolf or jumping spider. The general body shape is consistent with funnel-web weavers, but the coloration is different from any I’ve ever seen. Note that I have only seen two or three species of FWW, all of them indigenous to the Utah desert, and there are dozens if not hundreds of other species. So on a general theory I’d suspect Family Agelinidae or similar.

Thanks, and welcome, Brian!

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[Edit: this is a duplicate of the photo from June 12, 2008. I was clearly asleep at the wheel this morning. I even wrote up an all-new post for it and everything. I’ll replace this with a different image later tonight. Thank you to the alert readers who pointed this out and reminded me.]

Jeremiah Fargo got a decent shot of a beetle here. Not sure on species; it’s probably a darkling of some kind.

I particularly like this shot for the surprise feature–can you see the phoretic mite?

We’ve mentioned phoresis before; it’s the “bus-riding” kind of parasite. This beetle looks like it’s just landed or just about to take off, so that little might probably went much further than it planned…

Thanks, Jer!

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Jeremiah Fargo strikes again, this time with a picture of a black ant.

I’m not sure on the species of this ant, but the general appearance lead me to suspect Camponotus pennsylvanicus, especially the abdominal hair pattern as shown here: http://bugguide.net/node/view/83531

Any takers on a positive id? This could also be a Formica ant, but I’m not sure.

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The conversation went something like this:

Julia’s friend: “Julia, you have a bug in your hair.”

Julia: “Really? Quick! Who’s got the camera?”

I can assure you that this would not be my first question¹. But Julia Faelt continues to be rockin’ awesome, and this picture proves it. But wait, there’s more! After the picture, but before pulling it out of her hair, they did science! Check it out:

“I’m pretty sure the species is Tettigonia viridissima. The picture was taken by a fellow biology-student last August, and it is indeed me the bug is sitting on - in fact we could hardly get her of. It was fascinating to follow how she moved her antennas - it was clear that she could hear very well, as she followed any source of sound (loudly speaking passers by, us experimenting with clapping our hands and calling at her…) with them.”

Awesome photo, Julia!

¹ My first question would have been, “I have hair?!?”