I, Spy...SPIDERS!

 Spiders eat pests like mosquitoes, flies,  Spiders are SHY, not aggressive! They roaches, earwigs, fleas, clothing moths, and prefer to hide & runaway from danger. garden aphids (400-800 million TONS per year worldwide)!  Only ONE spider in Colorado has venom of medical importance to humans (western  Spiders are food in a healthy ecosystem black widow), and it will ONLY bite humans for many small mammals, birds, & fish! if seriously provoked!

The Bluff Lake site is home to at least 100 different spider species!

Can you find any of these spiders often seen at Bluff Lake? Put a check mark in the box when you spot one!

Funnel Web Spider Banded Garden Louse Hunter Agelenopsis aperta Spider Dysdera crocata Argiope trifasciata

 Builds a silken platform with a  Often found under rocks, logs,

funnel near the ground and other moist areas  Sits near the back and rushes  Builds webs in grassy fields  Bright orange, with large out to eat insects when they  May create “stabilimenta” (white “chelicerae” (jaws) “blunder onto” the web zig zag bands) in its web  Hunts wood lice (the plural form (accidentally get stuck)  One of the few orb weaving of “louse”)and roly polies  Web often has a back door the spiders that keeps its web up  Introduced to the U.S. from spider can use to escape during the daytime Europe and is now common here Yellow Sac Spider Western Lynx Spider Wolf Spiders Cheiracanthium mildei Oxyopes scalaris Lycosidae

 Common throughout  Dark colors help camouflage Colorado—including in homes  Often found in low branches of  Don’t build webs—wander on the  Introduced from Eurasia, it has trees and shrubs ground looking for prey to catch spread throughout the U.S.  Hunts its prey by stalking,  Solitary creatures  Builds a silken “retreat” running, and jumping on (private, safe place) under insects, much like jumping  Often found in grasslands, moist leaves to hide during the day spiders areas (like near the lake), or near  Very active hunter at night  The body is spiny or inside the shed  Gets some of its energy by  6 eyes arranged like a hexagon,  Despite their fierce name, shy & sipping nectar from flowers! with 2 smaller eyes underneath avoid danger (like most spiders!) Cobweb Weaver Apache Jumping Bold Jumping Spider Enoplognatha ovata Spider Phidippus audax Phidippus apacheanus

 Like all types of jumping spiders,  Striking white markings among  Can be found in messy webs to hunt it creeps up on prey then deep black “setae” (hair-like under leaves in shrubs structures) on the body  Female guardsbluisheggsac JUMPS onto it by surprise!  Bright green “chelicerae” (jaws)  Young spiderlings stay near  Bright orange-red markings their mother until they can build  Jaws are “iridescent” (shimmer  Like all types of jumping spiders, it webs & hunt on their own and seem to change color) has extremely good eyesight  When they are old enough to  Active during the day  If you encounter one, move your finger in front of its eyes and it will leave their mother, they balloon  Female often deposits soft, off on strands of silk silken eggsac under bark track the movement! Crab Spiders Slender Crab Spider Western Black Widow Thomisidae Tibellus oblongus Latrodectus hesperus

 Bright red markings on underside

 Very messy webs close to the  Often found on flowers ground with strong silk  Hold their legs to the side of  The slender crab spider is a  Only spider in CO with venom of their bodies and scuttle side- "running crab spider" in a “medical importance” to humans to-side like a crab different family (Philodromidae)  Will only bite humans if seriously  They are sit-and-wait from the crab spiders in the provoked. Venom takes a lot of predators previous entry (Thomisidae) energy to make—they’d rather  When a pollinating insect  Commonly found in the grassy use it on something they can eat! comes to visit the flower… fields of Bluff Lake POW! The crab spider grabs  Buff-colored body with a central  Bites can be very paintful, but the insect with its first two stripe down the middle symptoms typically resolve in 48 pairs of spiny legs  Its colors and markings give it hours untreated  Often very colorful, and some great camouflage  Antivenon is available – if bitten, can change their body color to  Hides among grasses and try to take whatever remains of match the flower! vegetation the spider with you to the hospital

Information provided by Paula E. Cushing, Ph.D. Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Photos provided by R.W. Teichler, P.E. Cushing, Frank Hall, Buzz Morrison, and George Raming