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Comments & ID Thoughts
17 of these spider were in a ball of mud. None were alive.
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Jun 20, 2024
- Photographed: Jun 19, 2024
- Spider: Eustala anastera (Hump-backed Orb-weaver)
- Location: College Station , Texas, United States
- Spotted Outdoors: Ground layer (leaf litter, dirt, grass, etc)
- Found in web?: No
- Attributes: Parasite
Jun 2, 2019
May 24, 2019
Browns mills, 
The Attributes should say “with parasite.” There’s a spider serial killer. Probably a Mud Dauber Wasp. I think the wasps that prey on spiders are interesting. Spiders and wasps have a long evolutionary history of battling each other. Some of the parastitic wasps will even dive underwater to attack Fishing Spiders and will pull them out of the water. The wasps sting the big spiders and corral them or bury them in a hole or mud. The wasps collect spiders and inject their eggs into them. The spiders are a food source for the wasp larvae, and incubators if they… Read more »
Oh my goodness. That is interesting. I would never have figured out that crime scene.. Poor spiders. Bur poor wasp too. All that work for nothing.
I agree poor wasp. It was tough crime scene that involved several people. The mud blop was found in the back of an UTV after some of the tropical storms moved through. I was told by workers at the field they think those were babies to mom that builds a new web every night on the same UTV. All but 4 were the same color 13 of them looked just like the picture in different sizes. 2 were very small and brown (like they were dead the longest) and two had some yellow markings