Comments & ID Thoughts
This looks like some type of orb weaver but I can't find a picture with positive identification. The structure she sits in when she isn't active looks like it might contain egg sacs but this seems like the wrong time of the year and I have never seen a spider with more than one egg sac and never in such a structure as this. This picture was taken in Pecos, Texas.
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Oct 19, 2019
- Photographed: Oct 17, 2019
- Spider: Unidentified
- Location: Pecos, Texas, United States
- Spotted Outdoors: Man-made structure (building wall, fences, etc.)
- Found in web?: Yes
- Attributes:
This structure the spider rests in actually sits in the vertical position and she sits at the bottom. She stays in there by day and comes out at night to work in her web. The web is located just over an outside light which attracts lots of bugs after dark.
Metepeira labyrinthea, a Labyrinthine Orbweaver. This one was really interesting to research. She is a little difficult to ID because the species is variable and the secondary webs are too. They make a traditional orb web to catch food and a web to hide in, like funnel web spiders do. There are trap lines connecting the two so she can hide in one web while being able to feel vibrations of prey in the other. She is one of the orbweavers that make a web with debris or spider shapes to serve as decoys to predators. I’ve seen some of… Read more »