July 7th, 2006
mothers on guard duty
Yesterday, while making the insect rounds in the gardens, I found this Oblong Running Crab Spider (Tibellus oblongus) resting quietly on a leaf in the herb garden. These spiders are extremely shy and not at all confrontational. When approached, they quickly move sideways to the underside of a leaf. They can do this so quickly that it’s almost like magic. Under normal circumstances, it’s actually rather difficult to get a good look at one of these spiders because they will keep moving the the opposite side of the leaf each time you flip it. However, when you find one bravely holding its ground, you can be pretty sure that she’s protecting an egg case. So, I approached this spider to take a look.
Sure enough, she was sitting tight on the upper side of a leaf with her egg case fastened to the underside with network of silk. As you can see from the above photo, she is really hunkered down. Despite my approach to shoot a couple of photos, she did not move from her protective position. If anything, she curled her legs more tightly about the leaf and looked like she was there to stay. Knowing the usual behaviour of these spiders, her instinct to protect must be very strong in order to override her desire to hide.
And here’s an update on the (probable) Xysticus emertoni Crab Spider that I reported on back on June 20th. Seventeen days later, she’s still guarding her egg case inside a small refuge constructed of rugosa rose leaves. Her abdomen is looking quite caved in now, and she seemed so torpid that, at first, I thought she might be dead. However, she became active when I disturbed the leaves around the refuge. She moved to cover the egg case with her body, wrapping her legs around it protectively, and then held her ground while I shot a couple of photos.
Note: I was hoping to see the spiderlings when they emerge from the egg case, but it looks like things won’t work out that way. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be off to Nova Scotia in the morning. However, I may try to have the person who is staying here check on the spider and let me know what happens over the next few days. How do you like these instructions? “Please check on spider in rose bush each day.”
By the way, I hope to continue posting fairly regularly if I can get my laptop working with the wireless connection where we’ll be staying. We’ll be spending most of our time hiking and photographing nature, so will (hopefully) have some interesting dispatches on nature sightings in Nova Scotia!
Tags: Tibellus oblongus, Oblong Running Crab Spider, Xysticus emertoni, Crab Spider, maternal spiders