Comments & ID Thoughts
The first photograph is my best take of the top of the spider. The bottom, I think is the underside. This was an outdoor spider descending from a roof in Key West Florida.
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Jan 5, 2024
- Photographed: Jan 5, 2024
- Spider: Gasteracantha cancriformis (Spiny-backed Orb-weaver)
- Location: Key West, Florida, United States
- Spotted Outdoors: Man-made structure (building wall, fences, etc.)
- Found in web?: Yes
- Attributes:
Lovely picture…I think this is a Gasteracantha cancriformis…the spiny backed orb weaver
https://spiderid.com/spider/araneidae/gasteracantha/cancriformis/
Yes, they make tag-like stabilimenta in their delicate webs ( really cute dainty orb webs). From this photo I think the tag-like spots might be the way they bind intersections of strands that go different directions. @Hugabug this one doesn’t want a hug 🙂 , that’s why it has spikes. It also doesn’t want to be swallowed. These can be found with different color patterns. The undersides have spots that seem to bounce UV light. When I was in Florida I was playing around with photographing them (and avoiding family gatherings) and found that the underside looks likes stars in… Read more »
Tangled Web, thank you so much! There truly is a whole universe in one small spider. Thank you for helping me appreciate this one
That’s beautiful! 🙂 The spider that lead me here was a hairy kinda ugly orbweaver that was sleeping in a leaf that it tied around itself like a bathrobe. It had all of its legs over its head in the defensive posture. I want to curl up and sleep like that too. It was the cutest ugly spider ever! Welcome to SpiderID!
Thank you Nod! Just discovered this site and so far I’m quite enamoed