Fairfax County Stewardship Spiders, Snakes and Slime Molds
Silky or icky? Long live the king snake What is that
Spiders, the eightlegged, fearinspiring www.forestryimages.org The king snake is the easiest snake to begin a long thing? arthropod often mistakenly called a friendship with.Black and yellow markings make it easy to One of the most Joseph Berger, ‘bug,’ produce one of the most unusual spot this distinctive creature.King snakes don’t have the fascinating forms of life on the fibers spider silk. Spiders create up to tendency to enter houses (like the black ratsnake) nor is planet, the plasmodial slime mold is seven different kinds of silk which can Jumping Spider it camouflaged like the copperhead.Best of all, the king not really a mold or fungus.It is a
be used in capturing and immobilizing prey, making shelters or nests snake eats other snakes.In John White harmless organism that has its and aiding travel.Only the central part of the web is sticky, not the fact, all snakes serve as own role in our local habitats. MicroAngela spokes, letting the spider move around stewards in our urban park Dispersed all over the globe, the slime James Sogaard without getting stuck.Dragline silk, the long land by eating nuisance mold in your backyard is likely the same thin threads that spiders dangle by, is both rodents and insects, and species found in Argentina and China.If the right light, strong and flexible.Stronger than steel, sick or dying fish and by moisture and warmth conditions are met, a slime mold dragline silk is often compared to Kevlar providing food for other can pursue its gentle existence.However, if the environ (used in bulletproof vests). wildlife.Snakes are, for ment becomes unfavorable, it is easy for plasmodial Spiders are feared for their bite, and some example, one of the favorite slime molds to hibernate for as long as 75 years. do use poison to kill their prey, but only a foods of hawks. Artist rendering of very few, like the black widow and brown Slime Mold biology spider silk glands. recluse, are toxic to humans. If not you, who? Unique chemistry and structure (each cell may have Small things. The rings on the eastern king snake make it easy many hundreds of nuclei) allows slime molds to share to recognize. It’s not easy being a snake � Try to avoid disturb characteristics with animals AND plants. If you see one Perhaps the most underappreciated “The bird a nest, ing wildlife in nature. Just like we have regular routes between in your backyard or park, watch it closely.Slime molds can form creature in Fairfax County is the snake. the spider a web, school, work or home, wild things do too,and daily routines work sluglike masses that move at the amazing speed of 2/1000 inch an Snakes can be seen basking in the sun man friendship.” best when not interrupted.Observing wildlife from a distance helps hour! Alternatively, slime molds will spread out across a leaf or log to throughout our woods, wetlands and protect you and our natural resources. eat dead wood or bacteria.In this feeding stage,a slime mold can streams – although most of the time William Blake range from an inch to three feet square. they are resting in a crevice,a hole or under If not you, who? Small things. a log.It is when the snake is threatened,cornered, � Dead wood is not useless wood. That dead tree in the forest having a hand waved in its face, picked up, or poked that it may act serves as shelter for several different species of plants, animals and defensively.Even then,only one of Fairfax County’s snakes, the cop slime molds too.Collecting logs and dead trees from park land could For more information on these or other topics,visit perhead, can produce venom strong enough to affect a human. be dangerous and it robs the natural area of habitat for wildlife. www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/stewardship.
Of Snakes and Things ❖ Occasionally you’ll meet a Care, Educate, Inspire Fairfax County person who is comfortable Stewardship is about working together to care for the with snakes or maybe even environmental and cultural resources of Fairfax County. Stewardship has a pet tarantula.But the People become stewards for different reasons.They rest of us usually have an may want to help ensure clean water and air.They may aversion to the less cuddly wish to share something with their children.They may Kevin Munroe and Tony Robison aspects of our animal com be inspired by spiritual beliefs.Whatever prompts our Wolf spider with hatchlings munity. The natural world riding piggyback. commitment,it is easy to take an active role in stew is full of an amazing assort ment of adaptations and oddities that can be found enchanting or ardship. It can be a small and simple thing,or it can be disgusting, lifesaving or life threatening, silky or icky.Despite these much bigger.Either way,it all adds up to a Fairfax primal fears, snakes and spiders serve important roles in our natural County that looks to its past with pride and to its future areas and for those reasons we should coexist tolerantly. with confidence. And why slime molds? Well, they’re just cool. You can learn more about Fairfax County Spiders, Other creepy creatures Stewardship,the Board of Supervisor’s Many plants and animals are mimics of commonly found objects in 20year environmental vision and nature, like the moth that looks like bird poop or the insect that looks the Fairfax County Park Authority at Snakes like a stick.Most animals are simply trying to avoid being eaten,but www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/stewardship it does make for an Kevin Munroe and Tony Robison and amazing array of forms and functions that are Slime Molds wondrous to discover and interesting to explore.Sometimes, A publication of Fairfax County, Virginia the creepiest things The beautiful wood nymph (Eudryas turn out to be the To request this information in an alternate format , please call ones that spark the grata), a moth that resembles 7033248563.TTY 7038033354. bird poop. most curiosity.
Printed on recycled paper with soy inks. Stewardship Series #5 • 2/06 Fairfax County Spiders, Snakes Stewardship and Slime Molds
Argiope Spider Jim Occi, BugPics, www.forestryimages.org Garter Snake
Kevin Munroe and Tony Robison
Pretzel Slime Mold James Sogaard Barn Spider
Kevin Munroe and Tony Robison Black Widow Spider Coral Slime Mold
John White
Kevin Munroe and Tony Robison
Queen Snake Clemson University USDA Cooperative Extension Slide Series, , www.forestryimages.org
Northern Water Snake James Sogaard
Joseph Berger,www.forestryimages.org Brown Recluse Spider Eastern Hognose Snake James Sogaard
Jumping Spider
Coral Slime Mold poroid form John White James O.Howell,The University of Georgia, www.forestryimages.org
Kevin Munroe and Tony Robison Kevin Munroe and Tony Robison
James Sogaard Copperhead Snake
Wolf Spider Unidentified Slime Mold plasmodial form Black Rat Snake
John White