Spongillafly (Sisyridae)

A couple weeks ago about the middle of November I took a walk along the Shenandoah River on my way home from grocery shopping. I had my camera with me so of course I took it along. I was looking for spider egg sacs for my post on those interesting tiny things so I was looking very closely at the trees and rocks. To my surprise I found this interesting web structure. It is about the size of a quater.

At first I thought it was a spider egg case and I had seen a photo of it on the cover of my current favorite book, Tracks and Sign of Insects by Charley Eiseman and Noah Charney. If you are a naturalist and don’t have this book you should put it on your Christmas list this year, you won’t be disappointed. Anyway I began taking photos like crazy.

When I returned home and looked it up I realized it was a Spongillafly in the family Sisridae. They are related to lacewings but to my mind the adult looks more like a caddisfly. The larvae live in the stream and feed on fresh water sponges. I was hoping we had sponges in the river but I have never seen them. Anyway the larvae move up onto the side of the bank when they are ready to pupate. So this isn’t an egg sac after all, it is a pupa. This larva crawled out of the water and up onto the underside of this rock where it built this elaborate cocoon.

Find more interesting creatures at Camera Critter.

Spider Egg Sacs

Finding the Ray spider eggs this summer captured my attention and I began to seek out other spider egg cases and take photos. Below are the results of my finds so far.

The first one, Theridiosoma gemmosum, ray spider, was pretty much in plain sight hanging from a couple of branches on the side of the trail. It was a golden brown color but was hard to focus on and take a photo of because the silk reflects the light and the breeze kept it in motion. Eiseman and Charney in “Tracks and Signs of Insects” state that “the top of the sac is a separable cap, which is partly pushed off when the spiderlings emerge”. They also say that there are often many nearby but I didn’t know that at the time and didn’t think to look for others. They are in the family Theridiosomatidae and for an orb web that doesn’t have a hub but it tied together in the center and pulled together like an umbrella. Didn’t see that either but you can bet I will be on the lookout for it from now own. The shape of the spider is the typical fat round body like a Black Widow that most people are familiar with.

So when I came home from that trip I looked around the house and found these Common House Spider, (Parasteatoda tepidariorum) egg sacs and the spider to go with them. I have them all over the garage and deck so they were pretty easy to find. I just never paid them much attention before. The sacs look like little rolled up balls of brown paper bags. They hide during the day but can be found pretty easily in the evening. Most of the time I see one or more eggs sacs together. Their webs are messy affairs and the male often share the same web.

This a also a Common House Spider egg sac and some of the eggs hatched. Out they were near the screen door and I had to move them to another location. She didn’t seem to mind too much. I placed them on a paper towel in a safe location.

This next group was found on the side of the house and they look like they are made by a meshweb weaver (Dietnidae). They look right but I’m not certain of the size.



The Long-jawed orbweavers (Tetragnathidae) make an egg sac like the one above. It is fluffy and has green color silk added to it making it look like it has bits of moss and leaves added to it.  I also found some on the side of a rock at Valley Falls State Park.

I am certain of this one. It was made by a Neospintharus trigonu, a cobweb spider in the Theridiidae family. Problem was the wind was blowing too hard to get a good clear photo but you can still see the distinctive lantern shape. It is white when first made but then turn brown later.

These next two spider egg sacs I found along the river a couple weeks ago.



I believe they are from antmimic spiders (Corinnidae). Esieman and Charney say that Phrurotimpus can be brown to bright red. These along with several others were found on the under sides of over hanging rocks and mostly this color.

These next two can be confused but if you pay attention to where the egg sac is being carried you can identify it right away.

The Nursery Web spider carries the sac in her jaws until she finds a good place to to hide it just before the spiderlings emerge. The Nursery Web spider, in the family Pisauridae, is a good mother and is noted for protecting her offspring. She builds a nursery web around the egg sac before they emerge.

Above is the Wolf spider (Lycosidae) and it carries it egg sac attached to the spinnerets. It is made up of two halves. Lays down a flat layer of silk and lays the eggs, next she covers it with another layer of silk forming a ball. In this one you can see the two layers, one is darker than the other. She will open the sac when the young begin to hatch. Then they all crawl up on her back for 2-3 weeks until they are big enough to fend for themselves.

I once disturbed on in my basement and they all fell off. She waited for a few seconds while they all crawled back on. The one pictured above was in my flower box a few years ago. You can see the tiny spiderlings hanging on her back as she poses for this photo.

Visit other interesting blogs at ABC WEDNESDAY.

Valley Falls State Park, West Virginia

Valley Falls was once the site of one of the largest Cherokee village in the area. They called the falls “The Evil Spirit Falls” and then later when explores came they called it “Hard Around Falls”. Then it became “Falls of the Big Muddy” and “Great Falls of the Tygart Valley River”. Now it has been shortened to just “Valley Falls”. It used to also be a saw and later a grist mill but now it is a popular visitor attraction and I must say one of the more beautiful ones in WV. I was staying at Tygart Lake and was a little disappointed because the water at the lake was so low and it just looked so barren. This river by contrast was soothing to the soul and music to my ears. I don’t know what it is about water rushing down a stream that is so mesmerizing and calming at the same time but that is how it is for me.

Around the time of the civil war this place was booming with all sorts of business and a railroad. But alas the river was to take it all back. In 1886 a fire hit the area and the town was only partially rebuild.

Two years later a flood swept away the bridges, many homes and the grist mills. Three million saw logs, thirty feet high, swept away most of the town. They say it sounded life 4-5 freight trains at the same time.

In 1964 Valley Falls became a state park and a beautiful place to visit. I only spent a short afternoon there but everywhere I looked there was another postcard view.

Be sure to visit Scenic Sunday for more beautiful places to visit.

Potter Wasps and others that use mud to build nests

After finding this potter wasp nest.

I became interested in the potter wasp and began to look for other mud builders. Looking around my own home I found these Organ Pipe wasp nest made by Trypoxylon politum. They build their egg nest in sheltered locations such as under eaves or the insides of abandoned buildings. In this case they are under my deck. I think the previous owners were afraid of them and knocked them down. But actually they are harmless and not really aggressive as are most solitary wasps. You can see how they get the common name “organ pipe” because of the shape.

The female starts the nest by rolling small bits of mud into a ball which she carries to the site. I suspect in this case they found the mud at the creek just below the house. When the tube is the right size she finds a spider, stings it and stuffs it into the tube. After enough of them are packed in she will lay an egg inside and seal the tube with more clay. Then she starts another chamber and the process begins again. There are tons of spiders around my house and probably yours as well so there is no problem running out of larva food. Once the larva hatches it begins eating the spiders until it is finished growing. Next it spins a cocoon and changes into a pupa where it spends the winter and emerges early the next summer. As adults they mostly eat nectar.

Last summer a friend of mine gave me a Mason Bee block to provide a place for them to lay their eggs and thus help protect our native bees. These too use mud to seal up the entrance to their nest. The block has several holes but only a few have been used.

I find it interesting how once I am aware of something then I begin to see it everywhere. That has been the case with the mud building wasp. When I was stacking wood this fall I found some odd looking cocoon like structures made out of mud. I took photos of course as you can see below.

Researching in “Tracks and Signs of Insects” by Eiseman and Charney page 284 I discover what I had were spider wasp nest (Pompilidae: Auplopodini). They describe them as being found between logs in a wood pile. Whoa…that is exactly where I found them! I love this field guide. They do pretty much the same thing as the other wasps that use mud but the shape is different. So now I am on the lookout for other interesting wasp nest.

Visit other informative sites at ABC Wednesdays.