March 9th, 2007
an interesting spider
Before I write anything further, this is just a reminder to all that Good Planets will be appearing here tomorrow. So, last call for photos for tomorrow! If you haven’t sent your photo in, get on it right away as I’ll be putting it together later this afternoon.
Now, back to the beautiful spider in the above photo. I took this photo back on October 3, 2006, while traveling in northern California. My fellow traveler found the spider moving across the path on a trail high above a beach not far from the town of Trinidad in Humboldt County. As soon as we knelt down for a better look, we knew this spider was a little unusual. At first glance, it almost looked like it had 10 legs instead of 8, but the extra pair at the front are an extraordinarily long set of pedipalps. The size of them reveals that it’s a male spider as the pedipalps of males spiders are larger and differently formed than those of a female. The carapace (top of the cephalothorax - front section of a spider’s body) was also unusual, being a little flattened, but with the eyes arranged on a raised bump at the front (click on the above image for a better view). The chelicerae (jaws) were also quite long and large.
I didn’t quite know what to make of the spider as I’d never seen one like it before. I took quite a few photos as it crawled around over the dry grass and sand. A few weeks after arriving home, I wrote to David Shorthouse of the Nearctic Spider Database to see if he might give me some leads as to the ID. He was able to tell me that it belonged to the Family Antrodiaetidae - commonly referred to as the folding-door spiders. From there, I’ve done a small amount of searching around to try to ID it further. A species chart on Steve Lew’s Spiders of California site seems to narrow it down to four or possibly five species based on known range, but I don’t have enough information to go beyond that. However, based on what I’ve read, it sounds as though it could be Antrodiaetus pacificus which seems to be of similar appearance and is quite common to that region, so that’s one possibility. For now, I’ll just enjoy the spider for the little I do know of it.
Edit: Steve Lew posted a comment about the correct identity of this spider down below, so I’ll move it up here:
This spider is Atypoides riversi, commonly called a “turret spider.” They can be diagnosed from other antrodiaetids by the big prongs sticking out from the chelicerae of the male. They construct turrets from debris at the mouths of their burrows. A recent analysis shows them nested within the larger genus Antrodiaetus, which means that we’re supposed to call them Antrodiaetus too. But I like the name Atypoides dammit.
Here’s a picture of a turret.
Edit Again: (August 1, 2007) David Shorthouse of the Nearctic Spider Database has just informed me that the name Atypoides riversi has recently been changed to Antrodiaetus riversi.
Wow! Isn’t that “turret” an amazing structure!
Okay, more about how the folding-door spiders earn their name. It is due to the structure of the burrows that they create. They create a silk-lined vertical shaft, at the mouth of which are a pair of “doors” which may be tightly closed. Spiders use their burrows as hiding places from which to suddenly emerge to seize insects that venture near. Females also deposit eggs deep within the safety of their burrows. If you would like to read a little more about these fascinating spiders, check out this .pdf information sheet.
That’s all about this spider. However, for those of you who have read along this far, here’s a question. How many of you are nervous of spiders? Are you bothered by looking at spiders? If you’re bothered by the sight of spiders, do you think it is tied to a particular incident, or do you feel you picked up a dislike or fear of spiders from something someone said? Would you describe your fear as arachnophobia? If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, do you find that seeing photos of spiders up close has changed your view of them a bit? If not spiders, are there any other creatures that you fear or dislike intensely? I’d be interested in reading any comments on this topic as I’m planning to write a piece about the fear that many people have of a variety of creatures, so it would give me more food for thought.
Tags: Trinidad, California, Antrodiaetus riversi, Atypoides riversi, Antrodiaetus, Folding Door spider
March 9th, 2007 at 10:51 am
I used to be afraid of snakes, probably because of my mother’s reaction to one in our basement when I was a kid. Anyway, as the mother of three little boys living in the country, I decided not to let them know that I had any other thought about snakes than that they were cool. When they brought me a large rat snake to admire, I did so and extravagantly. Did the same for the smaller snakes so that eventually I didn’t mind them at all. And have made some of my reputation, such as it is, on an article I wrote about watching a black rat snake stalk and eat a nest of house wrens! Imagine me, someone afraid of snakes, actually praised by one of the world’s great snake scientists, for this article. Incidentally, it was published in Bird Watcher’s Digest–the most notorious article they’ve even published. Hate mail filled up a filing cabinet drawer, I was told. Anoother experience–went out with a reformed rattlesnake hunter and had a marvelous time. Couldn’t believe how shy they could be.
March 9th, 2007 at 11:05 am
I am afraid of spiders but I try to control it to avoid passing it along to my children. I don’t think it’s working though. I can’t think of any particular incident that made me afraid of them but I do remember one time when a huge spider drove me out of my house.
I was walking down the hall — alone in my house and happened to look at just the right time and in just the right place to see a spider behind my picture frame. Well, it was HUGE. As big as the palm of my hand (including legs of course!).
I freaked out — it was right next to my face when this happened so I think this was part of my concern. But, I freaked out and ran out of the house and waited for my husband to get home before I could go back in.
Yes, I felt foolish but fear is like that. I totally couldn’t help it. :) My husband was dismissive until he saw the thing and then he had to agree that it was QUITE impressive. He captured it and released it outside. This was when our house was new and I was quite worried that this would be a common occurance but I’ve never seen one that big before. I’m going to check out the spiders of CA link you gave to figure out what it was. Note, it was NOT a tarantula but it was in the lower end of that size range. Shudder!
Another note, I can observe spiders — like the one you saw — with scientific interest. My fear seems to have to do with proximity to my face and general location (in my house or car . . . not okay; outside . . . fine and dandy!)
March 9th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
I am terrified of spiders, a true arachnophobic if there ever was one. I have been for as long as I can remember. I have terrible spider nightmares, the general gist is always being small baby spiders hatching and crawling all over me.
This fear doesn’t extend to reptiles, nor rodents. Infact I like insects in general. I try to look at the pictures like the one above, because I have a genuine interest and think exposure therapy is good for me. However, I can just
barely muster the courage to read an article about spiders. I begin to have a physical rection at the thought. 3-5 seconds seems to be my limit looking at the pictures. My heart pounds, I shudder , my skin crawls. Intellectually I coach myself through. “there is nothing to fear” But eventually tears start to form and I shriek in way I couldn’t if I actively tried. And such a reaction of a picture no less! I seek out nature documentaries and cover my eyes while listening to the narrator. I hate scarey movies so I doubt I’m enjoying the “rush” of being scared.
When in the presence of a live spider, I lose my mind. Jump furniture, scream, cry, and shake. I have seen a spider as big as the one mentioned in the above post, while kayaking. It has later been suggested to me it was a wolf/ dock spider. The image is still burned in my brain. Infact the image above has given me such a strong reaction I see it whenever I close my eyes. ( my heart has started to pound just from discussing these creatures) It is completely ludicrous and I am embarrassed to even admit it. I don’t know if this provides any insight. I will say I do look at the pictures, and love reading the articals about the spiders, but I don’t know if it has helped with the phobia at all.
March 9th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
I don’t remember there ever being a time when I could not play with spiders(and snakes) at will. Actually, as I found when my son started playing with snakes, they are kinda slimy and stinky - I hadn’t noticed when I was a kid.
I do remember having reservations about putting my foot into my sneaker, fearing I would squish a spider with my toes when I was a child. I once had a black widow near my washer and dryer - I left her alone, and she left me alone. I even left a little brown spider in my bathroom, and she had (what seemed like) hundreds of babies, who didn’t survive since there’s no baby spider food in my bath.
March 9th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
I tried to leave a pic for the Good Planets, and your email inbox is full. I’ll try again later.. (Nothing like waiting ’til the last minute!!)
March 9th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Marcia - I think it’s terrific that you didn’t let your early fear of snakes keep you from watching them, and raising children not to be afraid. Great story about the rat snake article! My next door neighbour grew up with an intense dislike for touching a frog — she still can’t touch them, although she is fascinated by them (she’s an avid naturalist). However, the interesting thing is, much like you, she decided never to let her children know that she was nervous and actively encouraged them to explore nature in ways she could not. Her son grew up loving to be in the outdoors and went into biology and now works for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources on various fish and herptofaunal habitat protection programs.
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Egret’s Nest - Large spiders can be a startling, especially when they appear unexpectedly indoors. I had a somewhat similar experience when I was quite young (described recently in a post about Fishing Spiders). I used to have a slight dislike having spiders on me, but now I’m pretty cool about that, especially smaller spiders like the jumping spiders, which are very cute. I think I may have had a fear of being bitten, but that’s disappeared over the years as I’ve become confident in working around bees, wasps, spiders, and other creatures. It’s good that you’re trying not to pass the fear of spiders along to your children, and that you are interested in the natural history of spiders.
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KL - Thanks for writing about your fear of spiders. It does sound like a full-blown example of arachnophobia. I can understand the feelings that you experience as I was once very agoraphobic and your description sounds quite similar to the feelings I used to get (this was when I was a teenager). I still experiences twinges of that kind of fear when I have to be on a plane for a long period of time. I’ve been reading up on arachnophobia and it seems that most of the programs that have had good success are those where there is gradual exposure to spiders under “safe circumstances” (pictures, etc.. at first), until the person become desensitized enough to be near to live spiders. Anyhow, don’t be at all embarrassed to write about your fear of spiders. Almost everyone has an Achilles heel when it comes to fears of one sort or another. These days, my biggest one is a fear of heights. Apparently, one of the strongest fears many people have (something like 15%) is public speaking - which seems much more crippling that arachnophobia!
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sbgypsy - Luckily, I grew up around people who showed little or no fear of any creature, so I was a lot like you - I have picked up snakes and all sorts of creatures since I was little. I think that may be the key to growing up with no fear. A couple of the articles on fear of snakes and spiders mention that people seem to be becoming more afraid of certain creatures, and that this may be due to less contact because of lack of opportunities to encounter them on a regular basis. That might well be true as, during field work with students, I’ve seen several become panic-stricken at the sight of certain creatures. It seems like another good reason to try to get kids out where they can meet up with wildlife and lose some of their fears. — By the way, I’ve emailed you about the photo you sent. The file may be too large for my email box, but try sending it to the alternative email address that I’ve sent you.
March 9th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
I’m not afraid of spiders. In fact, I like them, including the black widows we find occasionally, and especially the wolf spiders. When I find them in the house I try to scoop them up and dump them outside. I don’t care to handle them, but I think that’s mainly for the same reason I don’t want to handle any of the smaller critters - I don’t want to squish them.
March 9th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
I’m not afraid of spiders, but I don’t like them in the bedroom. I can handle them just about any other place, but not there. I will remove a spider from the bedroom and put it outside, but I typically don’t do that for spiders in other rooms of the house. There is a spider that’s been living in our bathroom for quite a long time. I check on it every evening. It only comes out of its little hiding place at night.
March 9th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
At one time (for a dozen years or so) I was deathly afraid of spiders. How that happened is quite a story; I think I’ll do a blog post on it.
But as a child, I had a “pet spider”, and now, I love the beasties even more than most bugs.
Snakes, now that people have brought them up; I have always, always, always loved snakes. More stories to tell.
I was fascinated by trapdoor spiders as a kid. Never saw them, just read about them. I wonder now, how are they related to your folding-door spider? Just a thought; the long pedipalps may be useful in manipulating those doors.
March 9th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Gosh. I have such mixed feelings. First a confession and a question. I was on my way to the dentist this AM. There was a large spider in the sink. I had to leave. Bev, I’m no Annie Dillard. I couldn’t let it stay in the sink. It’s freezing outside and I thought scooping it up and throwing to the ice would be cruel. At my age my concern is for suffering. I didn’t want to wash him down the yucky drain - so I swiftly dispatched him with a paper napkin. I mean quickly. He could not have had a moments sensation. That’s where I am in life. OK. Make me feel bad and tell me what you do when faced with a similar situation.
Outside, I actually enjoy spiders - it’s a combination of delight and a little tingle up the spine. My sense of delight wins out.
BUT. Climbing into the shower in a cabin in Ramsey Canyon in Arizona and drawing the shower curtain to find I was sharing my evening ablution with a Huntsman Spider . . . EEEEEEKKK! My son had to witness his mother’s egress from that shower into the living room and then go in to dispatch the unfortunate creature. Poor kid. No one should have to witness that. And I don’t mean the spider.
Ah yes - the term ‘beautiful’ as applied to your wonderful picture of the folding door spider. Well . . . ‘beautiful’ isn’t the first word to come to my mind, but what an awesome picture.
Now honest to goodness - If you were walking through a garden and you inadvertently walked face-first into a golden orb spider wouldn’t you shriek and bat it off your face?
March 9th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
NO fears to report on, but that is one impressive photo!
March 9th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Bev, I’ve missed reading your blog for a few days. I’m not afraid of spiders, except that when I come across one that I think might be a brown recluse, I’m a bit jittery. I don’t know enough about any of them to know which ones I should avoid. So, for the most part, I respect them and keep my distance. When I find them in the house, I usher them outside.
March 9th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Mark - I usually avoid picking up small creatures for the same reason. So many small invertebrates will lose legs if they are handled.
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robin - we leave spiders around the house too. A couple of times in the past year, I’ve had a spider living in my laptop computer — I can’t imagine how they find somewhere to squeeze inside, but they do. Awhile ago, I posted a photo of one that came out and was sitting on top of the URL of Pharyngula while I was visiting that blog. I thought that was rather apprpropriate!
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Susannah - Yes, write about your spider experience on your blog. It would be interesting to read. I think trapdoor and folding door spiders share similar behaviour and probably closely related. I don’t know a great deal about either, but just looking at them, that’s what I would guess. I think the pedipalps and/or chelicerae are also used for digging the burrows.
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Cathy - You might not like to hear what I would have done! I would have left the spider in the sink and figured out what to do with it later in the day when I got home. I’m very comfortable with siders being around the house and gardens. As for what I do when I run into a golden orb spider in the garden, you might not like this answer either.. I love them. In fact, I keep a whole section of my gardens maintained especially to provide the right habitat for the big Argiope spiders. I wrote about the Spider Ranch part of our gardens last year, but you may not have seen it. Here’s a link to the part of my main website featuring the spider garden. I spend many happy hours out visiting and watching my favourite gang of spiders in summer! (-:
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Dave - It definitely was an impressive spider. And no, I wasn’t expecting you to report any fears!
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John - I would probably feel differently about a spiders, snakes and some other creatures if we have venomous species up here. When I’m traveling in places where I could run into such, I find it very difficult to keep reminding myself to be at least a little cautious. However, most creatures avoid encounters, so I guess it’s not quite so perilous as we imagine.
March 10th, 2007 at 8:15 am
That’s a very unusual-looking spider, Bev. I’m always delighted by the differences among spiders - the mainframe is the same, but all those attachments and behaviors change enormously!
I wouldn’t say I had arachniphobia, but I was definitely uncomfortable with spiders up through my 20s. Then I started looking at them more closely and it does defuse much of the discomfort. I’m not entirely certain that a true arachniphobe would find it easy to reduce the fear and anxiety, but I’m always glad to hear their honest descriptions of their fears.
(Just to mention it - I have a friend who has a phobia about buttons. We’ve talked about it quite a bit. She hates buttons, can’t stand to have them on her clothing, can’t stand hearing them click in the dryer, the thought of ironing around them makes her sick to her stomach.)
Snakes, though, I’ve never had anything but the greatest delight in encountering a snake. Even better if it’s willing to be picked up and cuddled for a bit before letting it go.
March 10th, 2007 at 8:23 am
Bev, Oh yes! Those Golden Orb spiders are beautiful and I too, would love knowing where I might ’see’ them. I guess I’m asking whether your appreciation for spiders is so complete that if a Giant Wood Spider landed on your nose whilst you were following Sabrina through a thicket . . . well,
would you instinctively knock it off with a suppressed shudder, or would you smile and let him braille the pretty plains of your cheeks? :D
March 10th, 2007 at 10:03 am
I’ve always had an affinity for spiders and snakes. I especially enjoy Argiopes and wolf spiders. I like Hog-nose Snakes and wish I saw them more often.
I was unaffected by the presence of cockroaches until I lived in an infested apartment for a short time years ago. I still have an instinctive abhorrence of that particular insect, though I enjoy watching other species.
March 10th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Wayne - It’s interesting how our responses change over time. I’m much more relaxed around wasps, bees and hornets than I used to be. In my own case, I think it’s due to working around all of them quite a bit and developing some sense of when they are simply curious, and when they are in a grumpy mood.
That’s also intersting about the friend who has phobia of buttons. There is one thing I can think of that triggers and odd response in me and it is anything with many holes in it… like a wasp nest with chambers or something with a similar structure. However, it has nothing to do with wasps as I’ve felt the same when confronted with similar shaped man-made objects, and for certain other natural objects as well — it’s the appearance of that kind of structure that seems to twig some weird response. It’s not a fear response — it’s a totally irrational dislike for the look of the thing. I have no explanation whatsoever for what’s going on, but it can be pretty intense. Who knows where these things come from. They may be instinctive, or perhaps tied to some early childhood memory. I do know I’ve felt this way about such objects for as long as I can remember.
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Cathy - At one time, I would have slightly freaked out over the situations you describe. However, in more recent years, I’ve had just those things happen and it doesn’t bother me now. I do freeze when I crash into a large orb web out in the fields, but more because I don’t wish to tear them as they’re so much work for a spider to build. That said, I can be startled by things that appear unexpectedly in places where I don’t expect them to be — for instance, a few weeks ago, the Black Swallowtail butterfly suddenly appearing next to my elbow while I was working gave me a start — not a fright, but I did feel some sense of surprise. I think that’s actually a good thing though, as to not feel any reaction would probably be dangerous - I think we need to feel some sense of “see and flee” or we could be injured by falling objects, things that burn or bite, etc… By the way, Don used to react to snakes in a very negative way — he disliked them intensely, but now he likes them and I notice he doesn’t miss a step when he comes upon even a large one in the forest.
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Larry - The various materials I read on phobias did mention that people develop a dislike for particular things if they associate them with a certain situation. Something that was of interest to me is that, during surveys, the creatures that people feared or disliked have changed quite a bit over time. In a more recently survey, rats placed quite high on the scale — where they hadn’t occurred at all on surveys a few decades before. I’ll try to write about some of these things when I put together the piece on phobias.
March 11th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
I’m looking forward to reading your article. I watched a 6 piece documentary on phobias about 6 months back. Each episode involved a different phobia, spider, flying, heights, etc. The followed some people progress with therapy, all used exposure therapy with pretty good success.
I have seen KL’s phobia in action over the years, she being a friend of mine, it is not something I would want to have to live with. I don’t have any phobias, for now!
As far as your blog having an impact, I didn’t have the fear to reduce but my appreciation of the smaller world has increased dramaticly. I find myself looking up many details of things I have seen that I would not have done 2 years ago.
March 12th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
I don’t mind spiders, although one did crawl into the arm of a denim jacket hanging in a closet last fall and bit me twice near the elbow. We get those pale ivory house spiders (I am not sure what they’re called), as well as jumping spiders, and there are lots of large web-spinning garden spiders and harvestmen in the yard.
I actually have to defend the spiders in my house from our 4 cats — apparently, spiders are quite the tasty snack!
April 6th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
This spider is Atypoides riversi, commonly called a “turret spider.” They can be diagnosed from other antrodiaetids by the big prongs sticking out from the chelicerae of the male. They construct turrets from debris at the mouths of their burrows. A recent analysis shows them nested within the larger genus Antrodiaetus, which means that we’re supposed to call them Antrodiaetus too. But I like the name Atypoides dammit.
Here’s a picture of a turret.
April 6th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Steve - Thanks very much for posting the ID of that spider. I’ve moved your comment up into the body of the original post to add that info, and also posted a follow-up to this piece in my blog tonight.