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Comments & ID Thoughts
These four spiders were found dead laying bellies up on top of my carport table today. They were not there yesterday, so, they all died together in very close proximity of each other within a span hours. I don’t have the slightest clue why they died, yet alone, to die with their bellies upward!!! I suspect the spider farthest to the left is commonly known as the “Wolf Spider”! As far as the other three, they all bear the exact same markings on their top abdomen and of exact same colors. The only difference between them is in their sizes. This occurred in “Turkey Creek • Lowndes, MO 63951 (Wayne County)”!!!
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Jun 12, 2019
- Photographed: Jun 12, 2019
- Spider: Unidentified
- Location: Lowndes, Missouri 63951, Missouri, United States
- Spotted Outdoors: Man-made structure (building wall, fences, etc.)
- Found in web?: No
- Attributes:
The spiders to the right look like spotted orbweavers in the genus Neoscona. It’s possible that a wasp has been collecting spiders as food for their young.
Another interesting Spider Crime Scene Investigation! My top hunch is that Ex is onto something. The parasitic wasps paralyze spiders and oviposit their eggs into them. It is thought that Fishing Spiders and Wolf Spiders carry their egg sacks under their bodies to shield the eggs from the wasps. Often the wasp will drag the spider into a burrow to give the eggs time to develop and eat. For people who think spiders are gross and scary: the spiders have something far grosser and scarier to deal with! So, yes, this wasp may not have been able to move the… Read more »