Category Archives: Arthropods

No fly zone

Crab spider webs and fruit
A crab spider sits in its web
A crab spider sits in its web.,

Crab spiders (also known as spiny-backed spiders) came to Hawaii in 1985. They spread through all the islands and are especially numerous here in the winter months. They build dense thickets of webs such as these between two tangerine trees. They look threatening, but aren’t particularly. People do get bitten, mostly if a spider falls on them or gets lodged in clothing.

I usually encounter them when I miss spotting a web and end up with it wrapped around my head. Their webs, which often span a 10 or 20 foot gap, seem especially strong and sticky.

For more information about crab spiders, go to gardenguyhawaii.com/2011/12/crab-spiders.html.

Abstracts: Where’s the dragonfly?

Dragonfly in a kiawe tree

I was walking through a stand of kiawes when a dragonfly jitterbugged by. I hoped it might loop back so that I could get a photo of it, but instead it headed toward the top of a tree and disappeared. I thought I saw where it went and got as close as I could, which was still a good distance away. I trained my camera in its direction and took a few photos, not sure if it was even in shot. I thought I might just be taking pictures of a twig. It wasn’t until I got home and looked at the photos that I saw I’d been right about its location all along.

Hawaiian garden spider

Hawaiian Garden Spiders

Sorry arachnophobes, but there are spiders in Hawaii. These are Hawaiian garden spiders (Argiope appensa), which came from Asia originally. Mostly it’s the female spider, the large, colorful one in the center of this web, that is seen. Indeed, this was the first time I’ve noticed a male, the much smaller, brown spider. Another web nearby also sported a male and female pair.

Their distinctive webs usually feature one or more broad zigzag lines of silk, called stabilimentum. I’ve read that this is to stabilize the web, but might also serve to lure prey or as a marker to birds and the like, so they don’t fly in to it.

For more information about the Hawaiian garden spider, go to insectidentification.org.