Monday, February 18, 2013

non-native invasive spider (Cithaeron praedonius) - Winter Springs, FL

Thanks to /u/neuralphreak for an outstanding job of collection/curation.
Winter Springs, FL, 17 Jan 2013

This spider has translucent patches on her legs, a dark spot behind her anteromedial eyes, and featherlike hairs on her legs. Her tarsi end in long, tentacular pseudosegments, which can grasp projections in the environment and pull the spider around. Her native range is vast, from Tripoli to Taman Negara, and she readily thrives in urban environments, eating the pests that thrive in filth. Like Indo-European languages, she has become established in Brazil, Florida, and Australia.





She has some kind of caked gel on her mouth-hairs



Note the pigment dot behind the AME, and the evident roundness of those eyes.

Epigynum 




Clarified epigynum


Translucent femur and pseudosegmented tarsus 






1 comment:

  1. Wow. How did you get such a clear image of the dorsal epigynum? Is it in alcohol? Is it lit from below? I'd love to be able to do that.

    ReplyDelete