Kerry Wixted

Connecting Nature & Community

Author: kwixted0

#Arachtober: Funnel Weaver Friday

It’s Friday, so let’s celebrate some of our local spiders that make pretty intense webs: funnel-web spiders (Agelenidae). At the time of this posting (Oct 2022), ten species of Agelenids have been identified in Maryland. Agelenids typically build a a horizontal, sheet-like web with a funnel on one side (hence their common name). Like most
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#Arachtober: Charlotte’s Web

Charlotte’s Web was one of my favorite movies as a child. I LOVED watching it over and over again, but I missed how much spider biology was intricately woven into the movie and novel. Did you know? Charlotte’s full name was Charlotte A. Cavatica. She was modeled after the barn spider (Araneus cavaticus). Wonderfully enough,
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#Arachtober: Black Widow

Today’s #Arachtober post is going to feature a highly misunderstood group of spiders: the black widows. In Maryland, we have two species of black widow spider- the northern (Latrodectus variolus) and the southern (Latrodectus mactans). Contrary to popular belief, these spiders are not very aggressive and have relatively poor eyesight. The females mostly rely on
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#Arachtober: Marbled Orbweaver

Happy #Arachtober! I am going to start off strong with my first blog post on my favorite local spider: the marbled orbweaver. This local spider has brightly-colored striped legs and a marbled pattern on its backside. The pattern is a creamy yellow and black, but some individuals get a bright orange butt. The orange coloration
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