a journal about spiders found around Western PA
Kennywood is a southern black widow (Latrodectus mactans) I caught in Jacksonville, NC in July 2016. She was immature when I caught her, a LOT smaller and with white stripes on her abdomen in addition to the hour glass. The white faded after subsequent molts and now she's full grown at ~10mm. Kennywood was named by... Continue Reading →
My hope is to inspire interest in spiders through storytelling. Spiders are so amazing and diverse! I have A LOT of fascinating information that needs to be shared out! Take this lady, for instance - one of the "cellar spiders" in the Pholcidae family. Specifically, Crossopriza lyoni. One of my students found her in his mom's office in... Continue Reading →
You have probably seen them - nearly horizontal orb webs with one, two, maybe THREE green spiders in them. This is Leucauge venusta, AKA the Orchard Spider. If you see more than one spider in the web, one is the female and any others are most likely males waiting to mate with the lady. One summer,... Continue Reading →
Just kidding. No recluse is loose at the Amy Spider Headquarters. Being into spiders brings up a lot of interesting conversations with other people. Some who simply want to know why spiders, of all things and others who think it's pretty cool. Many of the folks I've talked to have a brown recluse story which is either... Continue Reading →
DIVERSITY is one of my favorite things about spiders. With over 42,000 species worldwide, spiders have come up with many amazing adaptations. One of the most interesting is ant mimicry. Hundreds of species do this trick and experiments have shown that the reason is protection. Spiders will look like ants, walk like ants, wave their 2... Continue Reading →
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