Lucienne? Don't Look. Trust me.

[lagilman]

For those of you who are not spider-phobic, a close-up of the spider who has been guarding my house from mosquitos and other crunchy bites.
He's lovely and fierce, but a little unnerving. Anyone know what he is? And we have a winner! European garden spider (Araneus diadematus, cross spider)




(click the pic for a close-up. And yes, he's outside the window and the storm screen, not inside. If he were inside I'd have made him go outside, post-haste)

Comments

[deannahoak.livejournal.com]

I think it's a kind of jumping spider, though I don't know which.

[lagilman]

He's built a large, beautiful web and hangs right in the middle of it -- I didn't thinnk they were known for that?

[deannahoak.livejournal.com]

Hm. Yeah, perhaps not, then. He looks like what we always called jumping spiders, growing up, but we could have been calling them the wrong thing all along. :-)

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

Orb Spider, looks similier to what's known as a Barn Spider, only it's legs aren't hairy.

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

Jumping Spiders live in gardens and don't build webs.

[lagilman]

I had considered barn spider, but this is clearly diurnal, not nocturnal. Someone off-LJ has identified it as a garden spider. If so, it's larger than my references give for garden spiders, and way off-track (it's made its web in a second-story window) but it seems as close as anything else...

So long as the felines don't get their noses bit, s/he's welcome to stay as long as s/he likes. Anything that eats mosquitos is ok in my book...

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

I thought Common Garden Spider too, but it's web is too orderly for that, as garden spiders make more of a tangled mess for a web. It's web is definately what an Orb Spider makes.

We have one here that camps out near the back porch light. Beautiful web on it. I'll have to find my photos.

[windrose.livejournal.com]

I would have said wolf spider, if not for the web. Wolf spiders are jumpers, not web-builders.

Whatever it is, it's big and kinda creepy. :/

[lagilman]

S/he is, btw, about the size of a quarter, from toe to toe.

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

Yup, ours was about the size of a buffalo head nickel-the original ones}:P

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

Looks like a European Cross (or garden) orb spider. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_garden_spider

[lagilman]

from my off-LJ specialist:

"I think you have a Marbled Orb Weaver, Araneus marmoreus.
Here's an image for comparison:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Araneus_marmoreus_2.jpg "

I'm not as convinced, as that photo is more orange and yellow, and mine seems to be more black and brown all over... but the markings are pretty close.

[lagilman]

By jove, I think you've got it!

[kriz1818.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love those spiders! We have them around my house - don't they make the hugest, most amazing webs?

But I didn't know what they were called until you posted this. 8-D

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

I agree, it *is* definately an Orb Weaver, but i don't think it's a Marbled one. Heh. I think it's more of a common variety.}:P

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

They're one of the most common spiders here - lots at this time of year. If it's big (since it is apparently eating a car, I presume that this is the case), it is almost certainly a female and any of her boyfriends will be treated to dinner, if you know what I mean (they're one of THOSE spiders). She will have been sanctified by Christ, for whom her ancestors made a web when he was crucified - this is supposed to be where the cross comes from, in, IIRC, Italian legend. She will also contain a magical stone which will protect you from malaria if you hang her around your neck (I got this verbatim from the writings of Elias Ashmole, he of Ashmolean Museum fame, who used to go around with three of them in a little bag. Rather him than me, I must say).

[delkytlar.livejournal.com]

He may be protecting your home, but what the heck is he doing to your car? :)

[lagilman]

The thought of a living spider as an ornament is...ugh. No thanks. And hanging a dead one around your neck seems rather at cross-purposes (pardon the pun) if asking for protection.

I'd rather get an anti-malaria shot and take my chances.

What was Christ's web supposed to have done? I know medically they're often used to staunch bleeding, but didn't they have enough linen around to take care of that? (I know, I know, don't fuss at the legend, Gilman, it's not there to make sense...)

[lagilman]

oi, t'ain't my car!

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

We got tons of those in our field at the new house. They creep me out, but as long as they stay in the field, I'm okay. They do make stupendous webs.

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

You know, not every spider is considerate enough to pull those annoying promotional flyers out from under windsheild wipers. You got yourself a keeper there.

[barbara-ferrenz.livejournal.com]

That looks like Chloe, the big ass spider who hangs out in the window by the hot tub. Karen named her about ten years ago. I know it can't possibly be the same spider after all of these years...but it looks like it. (We're lazy so we accepted "big ass spider" as a bona fide species.)

[(Anonymous)]

>What was Christ's web supposed to have done? I know medically they're often used to staunch bleeding, but didn't they have enough linen around to take care of that? (I know, I know, don't fuss at the legend, Gilman, it's not there to make sense...)

I think I've got details somewhere but can't find them, as usual. IIRC, it was indeed something to do with staunching bleeding. Will keep looking and let you know...(It's a bit like the legend of why donkeys have got crosses on their backs, because one of them carried Jesus - hey, it's got a cross! Weird. Better explain it, quick).

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

(post screened comment) - forgot to log in before posting. My apologies.

[anisosynchronic.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I wonder how prevalent European garden spiders are in the northeastern USA... I think I've seen that type of spider, or close relatives, in my yard, and maybe in the house.

(Spiders don't particularly bother me, but then unlike a friend who majorly aversive to them, I haven't had the experience of getting bit by a brown recluse. I wondered for years what the round shiny area on her leg was, and one day she told me it was the legacy of a brown recluse bite (she has an immune system that has phenomenal resistance to nasty stuff, that helped). )

(One positive thing about the dryness of the summer of 2007, was a lot fewer mosquitoes around that the past few years. Given that the only person I've known that mosquitoes were morely likely to attack than I was my mother, I don;t regret in the least a paucity of that variety of bloodsucking insect!)