Ocala

I met an arachnologist last month while contra dancing, and this weekend he invited me to join another Zoology student (who actually studies spiders) on a mini field-trip with some great field biologists yesterday. We went to the Ocala National Forest, where we spent some time in the scrub habitat that is native to Florida (and no longer exists in very many places) and to a different site with the sounthernmost stand of white cedar. I saw more fauna (especially spiders) than I ever would have noticed on my own, including walking sticks, net-casting spiders, a red widow, scrub lizard, sand skink (endangered), and a cottonmouth/water moccasin (venomous).

But perhaps the coolest thing, which we had to stay after dusk to observe, was a net-casting spider of the genus Deinopus. Essentially this spider makes a web that it holds in its front four legs while suspended above vegetation. If something lands below the spider, it drops down while extending the web, and essentially traps the insect underneath like a net. These pictures came from americanarachology.org and amonline.net.au.