Arachtober: Candy-striped Spiders

Common Candy-striped Spider
(Enoplognatha ovata)

I had never heard of candy-striped spiders before the above shot. I was so determined that it was a flower crab spider that I actually had the nerve to question the entomologist who identified it. But I see the difference now. Even though flower crab spiders come in this color and stripped-ness, they don't fold leaves, they don't have jointed legs (like cellar spiders also have) and they don't have webs. I accepted that this was a lifer spider species for me. I always meant to find another, but I never did and the incident, and the spider, was forgotten.

I began to visit Twitter frequently this past summer. The best entomology posts, photographers, and scientists seem to be there. I was surprised to see this tweeted poster from Dr. Catherine Scott (I can't find the original tweet):

#spiderhunters

It seems that these spiders are not native to North America. They forage for prey on flowers, which are being pollinated by bees, flies, and wasps. The question is: do the candy-striped spiders impact the pollinator population and if so, is it an adverse impact? The community science project is based on iNaturalist. It tracks the spread of the spider across North America. I immediately made sure that I was a part of the project. My two spiders have been reported.

The project especially wants photos of spiders with prey, which I had submitted. Again, I got no commendation, no certificate, no cash prize, not even a t-shirt. One needs to have a strong implicit reward system in this business.  

The spider comes in the three morphs that are seen in the poster (I have found two). Dr. Bell speaks more of it here in her page "Spider Hunters!" within her blog SpiderBytes, which is also in my sidebar.

The best place to see magnificent photos of the spiders is on Twitter.

School has been very stressful these past two weeks (abnormally so), and I haven't been able to visit blogs or keep up with my Arachtober goals. My Arachtober may slip into November. I do plan on a special post for Halloween of my proudest spider photo.

Common Candy-striped Spider
(Enoplognatha ovata)
with flower fly prey

_/\_/\_