This is my life right now: running around town, barging into people’s garages, peering into musty corners with my headgear, scooping up the occasional spider. Sorry. I’m going to be even more boring than usual for a while.
Today we surveyed a few more houses, including one that had no visible spiders at all — we found a few cobwebs, so we knew they were hiding somewhere in there, but no one was coming out to play. We were disappointed. The homeowners seemed pleased.
We also found one garage with multiple orb weavers, all very tiny and very young. This isn’t the usual place we expect to find orb webs.
Also found: Steatoda triangularis, with their pretty black & white diamond pattern.
scale=1mm
Tomorrow I’m doing lab work, then a few more days of field work before we stop for the month, and then next weekend I’m off to the American Arachnological Society meeting to hang out with some real arachnologists. Am I immersed in spiderology nowadays? I think so.
Well ,the top half of your head does look like a spider with multiple eyes .
As for your face ,without your specs you look a bit like the number one French baddie from the French Connection .
Sorry, Dr. Myers, but that Steatoda triangularis was mooning you.
Your headlamp rig is world-class, with a main LED and four supplementary illuminators. My first and still only headlamp is a modest Fenix HL35 with a single LED, used for automotive repairs.
there is nothing like being deeply involved with learning new things especially when they are big and complicated and interesting.
sounds like too much fun, I myself am getting a little restless about embarking on my own learning adventure after my recovery from somewhat minor surgery, having a hard time taking it easy!
I really love spiders myself
have fun Doc!
uncle frogy
@davidc1 To catch a spider, one must think like a spider. To think like a spider, one must BECOME a spider.
I am greatly puzzled by my local ecosystem. Cobwebs appear in my house all the time, but I almost never see their makers. And I have no idea what they eat. They never catch anything, as far as I can tell, and it’s rare to see an insect in the house. I think I’ve seen one fly so far this year. And of course I vacuum up the cobwebs as soon as I spot them. But somehow the population survives. Very mysterious.
Maybe you could put three more lights in the back, just so you’d have eight. However, this could also make it look like your head was on fire.
“Also found: Steatoda triangularis, with their pretty black & white diamond pattern”
Has anyone here seen a photo of a “Happy Face Spider ” ? They are found in the Hawaiian Islands .
MORE spiders? Just how many spiders do you have in that there state of yours?
There are alot of spiders on Baffin Island.