Sphodros (purseweb spiders)

[aaarg]

one of these days i will attempt to use his technique, though this is a different species and the web structure is different so i don't know if it will even be possible. maybe i could get a juvenile out through one of those soft lil webs.

the Sphodros species i'm finding webs of is most likely one of the following, which all have records in this county or the neighboring one: coylei, atlanticus, rufipes, niger. probably not niger since those are thought to use horizontal webs, maybe not rufipes cause there's only one record of that species nearby and it's maybe wrong lol

 

[aaarg]

i think i found my candidate web for an attempted extraction.

 

[Biollantefan54]

If you want to get one out, one time I used forceps and held an isopod (could use any crawling bug tho, like a cricket) and I held it and “walked” it up the web, when the spider ran up to grab, I used a twig to plug the bottom of the web against the tree, then you can just pull it up from there

 

[aaarg]

thank you for the pro-tip! i was gonna try the paintbrush method - i thought i had a bunch of small paintbrushes somewhere but i guess i don't? however, i do have lots of forceps... !

 

[Biollantefan54]

thank you for the pro-tip! i was gonna try the paintbrush method - i thought i had a bunch of small paintbrushes somewhere but i guess i don't? however, i do have lots of forceps... !

I tried using tongs and vibrating them to mimic movement and it didn’t work, but yeah walking the bug up the web worked like a charm. Good luck!!

 

[Biollantefan54]

Here’s a web i found at the park recently

 

[aaarg]

lovely!

looks like a wetter environment than i'd expect, is that always the case or did it rain recently?