A Naturalist's Journal

Spotted Orbweaver in its web.

Just outside our living room windows is a great place for a spider to set up housekeeping. The lamps next to our couch attract a great number of insects to the windows, so it is easy pickings for any spider who chooses to throw up a web. The handsome creature pictured here appears to have done well. I believe it to be a species of Neoscona possibly N. crucifera, and its common name is Spotted Orbweaver. However, I am no expert in spider taxonomy, and I would appreciate any suggestions as to its true identity. The first photograph shows the spider in its web outside the window. I then captured it, so that I could get some more photographs.

Spotted Orbweaver spider strikes a threatening pose on a napkin

After herding it into a pill bottle, I put it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to slow it down a bit. When I dumped it out of the pill bottle, it lay on its back for a minute or two, the began to recover. Within two or three minutes it became very active. I got it to walk onto a napkin and tried to photograph it as it crawled about. At one point it crawled up my arm and onto my upper back. I went into the bathroom to see if I could spot it on my back. While I was looking in the mirror, the spider crawled down my other arm and began to descend on a thread of silk. I gently captured it and took it back to the kitchen cabinet for more photographs. When I got tired of chasing it around, I herded it back into the pill bottle and released it outside. It climbed back up above the window to near its original lair.