Tiny spider on a seedhead of Telegraph Weed
This is a gorgeous little spider on a dead seedhead of native (but weedy) Telegraph Weed (Heterotheca grandiflora, Asteraceae). If you know the plant, you can see how tiny this spider is - the whole disk of the flower is about the size of a dime. The spider is tiny - just 925 pixels across in this 1:1 macro shot, which comes to 3.6 mm, about 1/8 inch. (See here for how I figured.) I only noticed it because I've been automatically checking the seedheads after finding this spider on a different plant - but this one has different markings from that Labyrinth Spider (genus Metepeira). This one does look like another Orb Web Weaver (Araneidae), though it seems to lack the "humps" of our usual tiny species Araneus bispinosus and Araneus montereyensis - see this photo. I don't know what it is, but it sure is a handsome spider. (San Marcos Pass, 14 March 2018)
Tiny spider on a seedhead of Telegraph Weed
This is a gorgeous little spider on a dead seedhead of native (but weedy) Telegraph Weed (Heterotheca grandiflora, Asteraceae). If you know the plant, you can see how tiny this spider is - the whole disk of the flower is about the size of a dime. The spider is tiny - just 925 pixels across in this 1:1 macro shot, which comes to 3.6 mm, about 1/8 inch. (See here for how I figured.) I only noticed it because I've been automatically checking the seedheads after finding this spider on a different plant - but this one has different markings from that Labyrinth Spider (genus Metepeira). This one does look like another Orb Web Weaver (Araneidae), though it seems to lack the "humps" of our usual tiny species Araneus bispinosus and Araneus montereyensis - see this photo. I don't know what it is, but it sure is a handsome spider. (San Marcos Pass, 14 March 2018)