rob was here.

While visiting my parents house, I noticed this spider, which is one a type which I have noticed many times before. You probably have seen it around your house; sometimes people find them indoors. It is (Latin name: Salticus Scenicus / Common name: Zebra Spider) and it's species is a member of the family of Jumping Spiders. It moves in quick little jumps. Watch out!

Snapshots taken from my kitchen. As always, learn more.

This little creature was caught crossing the floor of our kitchen last night. Very late (Nov 14th) for an active little invertebrate.

Harvestman are arachnids (like spiders, scorpions, etc) and although they look like spiders, they are not. He/She had 7 legs, I wonder what happened to the 8th?

1 unicorn (5:55pm)

2 witches (6:05pm)

6 random kids (6:20pm)

9 kids (3 princesses, 1 superman, 1 skeleton, 1 batman) (6:24pm)

5 kids (mostly devils) (6:28pm)

1 witch (6:30pm)

1 princess (6:30pm)

2 babies (6:39pm)

1 insect (6:39pm)

3 army dudes (6:40pm)

1 cheeseburger (6:42pm)

1 dinosaur (6:42pm)

3 insects (6:42pm)

1 witch (6:43pm)

1 witch (6:45pm)

5 (raggedy anne, witch, princess) (6:57pm)

1 tiger (7:08pm)

2 (ghost and goblin) (7:20pm)

5 (army, batman, tophat) (7:40pm)

2 (7:44pm)

6 (princess, skeleton, freddy k.) (7:53pm)

3 (8:10pm)

5 (witch, cowgirl) (8:12pm)

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TOTAL: 67.0 Visitors.

You probably have seen this spider before. It's perhaps the most common one I've seen in my life.

I stumbled across this little guy in my parents backyard today. After a bit of research it turns out that this common spider is no other than the Araneus Cavaticus, also known as the Barn Spider. This is just one of 2,800 known spiders in the Family Araneidae, the orb-weavers, which is the category of spiders that build circular webs that they try to catch you in.

It is very identifiable by the unique marking on the inside of it's abdomen, where there are always 2 white dots.

There already is a wikipedia article for this guy, so I didn't create one this time.

I am going to try something new. I plan, every week or so, to the discovering of some manner of life in our around my house or yard or neighborhood and researching it. Hopefully I will learn some interesting things and it's also an excuse to post more often on this blog!

Today I found a spider in the corner of a window of my basement. I have seen a couple of this nature before, especially under the deck of my house where it is dark and scary. They always looked black-widow-ish to me, so I have stayed clear and went on my merry way. Today though, I got in close to get some pictures. I had to knock the poor guy (gal?) out of its cobweb and onto the floor for some proper pictures, and then set the little fellow loose under the deck, outside the house.

Armed with my pictures, I hit the internet pretty hard in search of the name of this creature. After finding some great resources, I confirmed that this spider is a fairly common cob-web spider, specifically what appears to be a Steatoda bipunctata. Here are some other pictures of this spider that helped me confirm it's identity.

There was no wikipedia article for the species of my little friend so I created one, and donated a picture to wikimedia.