#two-tailed spider

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Tamopsis sp. (Hersiliidae)

A two-tailed spider in South Australia.

Photographer: Panduka D. Amarasekara

[fizzygoldfish]

[drhoz]

#1261 - Tamopsis sp. - Two-tailed Spider

AKA Long-tailed Bark Spider. A fairly large Hersiliid spider, a few centimeters across, that was sunning himself on a metal pole at dawn, up at Cue. Incredibly conspicuous against the metal, which was not wise of the spider. Hersiliids are usually invisible on bark or stone, and surrounded by radiating silk triplines to alert them of wandering prey.

The family includes some 176 described species, with two in North America north of Mexico, both of them poorly studied: Neotama mexicana in extreme southern Texas and Yabisi habanensis in extreme southern Florida.

Hersiliids capture prey by holding their spinnerets over the prey and rapidly circling and swathing them with silk. Some hersiliids are known to live on tree trunks where they rest on silken mats, frequently camouflaged by mosses and lichens. Other species are known from stone fields, where they build irregular webs under rocks. Camouflaged egg sacs are attached to tree limbs or under rocks.

Cue

[fizzygoldfish]

Two-tailed Spider, Hersilia deelemanae

[drhoz]

#467 - Two-tailed Spider Eggcase

The distinctive eggcase of a Two-tailed Spider - Tamopsis sp. Fam. Hersiliiidae. IDed thanks to BowerBird.org.au :)

Coolbellup, Perth

[drhoz]

Two-tailed Spider on cement-rendered wall. Wellard, Perth

[bugonthumb]

Big Week, Day 1: Out with the old (skeleton) in with the new

After getting super lost in Taipei (no thanks to GPS Jane), I finally made it to Wulai and drove directly to the "Valley of the Frogs" and the first trail on the itinerary. 

Right out of the gate, I spotted a couple of spiders I have always wanted to see; not life-listers I suppose, but they were in the top 50 anyway: a long-jawed ant-mimicking jumping spider and a two-tailed spider. Alright, alright! I know they're not technically insects, but I just love me them speeders and these guys are too cool.

Now, I consider myself pretty good at finding creatures that don't want to be found, but, hell, if it didn't take me minutes of tree-trunk scanning to spot these two-tailed spiders! They belong to a group of arachnids found almost exclusively on tree trunks and their "tails" are actually enlarged and elongated spinnerets.

Other highlights of the day included a wasp taking down a huntsman spider and another huntsman spider that had just molted, which I mistook at first for a dead leaf dangling from an idle thread of silk, but upon closer inspection, I noticed a distinctive eye-glint and soon the limp crumple of brown began to flex and stretch its legs, like fingers massaging an invisible head. 

Farther along the trail, I met an elderly Taiwanese Man curious about the bug I was photographing, a lovely cream and gold stink bug (or possibly shield bug?) nymph. The man grinned when he saw the  and he said he wanted to take some pics of the bug on my arm, then I got some of the bug on his arm and then we starting talking. Turns out he's a nature interpreter at Yamingshan National Park north of Taipei and is writing a book about Taiwan's native plants. His English is chopy but my Chinese is worse than broken, so our conversation involved a lot smiling and pointing. However, I did catch--and love--his description of the young hemipteran with which were both so enamored: "very golden shiny!" Indeed.

Hemipteran nymph, Wulai, Taiwan.

[drhoz]

#164 - Two-tailed Spider

Of the small family Hersiliidae. According to Wikipedia : "These spiders have two very prominent spinnerets that are almost as long as their abdomen. So they are also sometimes known as "two-tailed spiders." They range in size from about 10 mm (0.4 inch) to 18 mm (0.7 inch) long. Being very well camouflaged for life on the varicolored trunks of trees, they have an interesting way of capturing prey. Rather than making a web that captures prey directly, they lay a light coating of threads over an area of tree bark and wait hidden in plain sight for an insect to stray onto that patch. Once that occurs, they direct their spinnerets toward their prey and circle it; all the while casting silk on it. When the hapless insect has been thoroughly immobilized, they can bite it through its new shroud." Photographed on a pillar outside my front door. She's been there a few nights now. The tiny third pair of legs seems to be typical for the genus Tamopsis, the only genus endemic to Australia, but I don't know if that's the case with the rest of the family. See Brisbane Insects for more