The Bug Lady

Strawberry spider?

I recently came across a pretty interesting blog called Ugly Overload, where there are, of course, many pictures of insects. Poor little creatures, they are not that ugly!

Anyway, I saw this picture of what is being called the strawberry crab over there, and it made me remember this spider that I found a few years ago. I don’t know what is her exact species, but I have been calling her strawberry spider.

I think she is adorable. She was very clumsy on my kitchen floor, falling over all the time and crawling very awkwardly. I know that a lot of orb weavers have one set of legs that is only good for spinning around when hanging from a web and do them no good when they are trying to walk on a flat surface. I think that is the case here. The little legs are so tiny and the “butt” is so big that it’s difficult to move.

I was very impressed when I took it outside though. When I put her on a tree branch, she turned into something else! Quickly and elegantly climbing and fixing her web everywhere. She was definitely in her environment on the tree.

I have another pretty cool story about this spider that I will tell some other time.

Strawberry spider? by The Bug Lady, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Tags: arachnid, araneus diadematus, Brazilian, entomology, orb weaver, spider, strawberry