Immature Bridge Spider
I was walking down the hall at work on January 3, 2014 when I nearly ran into this little spider. It was hanging from the ceiling by a thread, and was right around eye level. So, I caught it in a little jar and brought it home.
It was just a little spider, the body was only about 3-4 mm long.
It was still willing to make a threat display at my camera, though. Which makes sense: if I had really wanted to eat it, the spider had pretty much nothing to lose by trying to scare me off, and not a lot of other good options.
The pattern on the body and legs looks pretty familiar, I think it is a very young Bridge Spider, Larinioides sclopetarius. This is a very locally-common species that I’ve photographed a couple of times before.
So, anyway. Since it was the dead of winter, and releasing it outside would have been essentially an immediate death sentence, we instead put it onto one of Sandy’s potted jade plants. There are generally enough things like fungus gnats coming up from the soil that a small spider has at least a chance in this environment.
We never saw it again, but the jade is a big plant, so who knows? It might have held out until spring, at which time it could have slipped outdoors once we started opening the windows.
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I’ll hate myself in the morning for leaving this comment, but …
When I read the title, “Immature Bridge Spider,” my mind went immediately to immature actions and I wondered if the spider could make multiple flatulence armpit noises by using several of its legs at once.
I’m sorry. 🙂
Gorgeous photography as usual, by the way. Really outstanding.