WTH Is Going On With This Crab Spider?

[pitbulllady]

I spotted this fairly large female Crab Spider, most likely in the genus Xysticus, on the aluminum weather stripping outside my front door tonight, snagging bugs that were attracted to the light, and took some pics. After I downloaded the pics, I noticed that she has these two straight yellow rods sticking out of her abdomen! They are not spinnerettes, and they are not webbing, either; any ideas what these could be? Parasites of some sort, maybe? She acted like a normal, healthy spider otherwise.

http://www.deviantart.com/view/35609576/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/35609676/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/35609791/

pitbulllady

 

[Skypainter]

Looks like cactus spines or something of that nature.

 

[zinto]

I was going to say the same thing. Looks like cactus. Where are you?

 

[Devon]

I also think cactus, and there also seems to be what could be some dry blood on the side of her abdomen. Very nice close-ups. I've once had a wolf with a wasp parasite and the "part" that was sticking out of her abdomen looked like dry blood but the spider didn't let me remove it. She ate normal, dug a burrow and then I didn't see her for a while. Anyway, I dug her up to find my spider transformed into a wasp pupa. Those wasps are really relentless, I've read that there is a speices of wasp that hunts Dolomedes triton the fishing spider and will follow the spider underwater to attack it. Now I think you've got a nature film if you can capture that.

Devon

 

[Stylopidae]

I'm also going to put my vote in for an accidental encounter with some sort of cactus.

Where do you live and where did you find it?

 

[pitbulllady]

I'm in South Carolina-no cactus except for a few I keep indoors at another location, most of which are Rhipsalis, or epiphytic tree cacti from the tropics-no spines. In some locations along the immediate coast, and in the Sandhills further north and west of us, there are small prickly pears, but not in this wet clay soil! The spider was on the metal weather stripping that surrounds my door, near the deck light, snagging bugs that were attracted by the light. She was pretty high up, above my head level(which isn't saying a whole lot). I actually had to pick her up and place her on the deck to get inside, since she would have fallen into the space behind the door when I opened it and it would have squashed her when the door was closed. I had the camera with me, since I take it pretty much everywhere, so I took the pictures and then moved her. I didn't notice anything odd about her until I uploaded the pics, but then again, it was dark and even a big Crabby that that is small compared to one of my T's or Kukulcanias. She was eating a bug when I first photographed her, but she dropped it when the flash went off.

pitbulllady