#Arachtober 29: didn't have time for a proper spider outing, so hopped over the garden wall to see what I could find in the yard—and almost walked right through this cross orbweaver's web strung between the dead coneflowers and columbines! As you can hopefully see in the close-up, her jaws are full of a big lump of mushed-up bugs.
#Arachtober 30: a lovely female hacklemesh weaver (_Amaurobius cf. ferox_) out in the open one night, rare for them. They spend most of their time in crevices in retreats of fuzzy back-combed silk that extends some way outside, letting them sense prey passing too close. People typically encounter the mature males that go wandering in search of mates and inadvertently end up inside.
The family is closely related to the funnel-weavers (family Agelenidae).
#ArthroBeauty #DailySpiderPic #spiders #Araneae #Amaurobiidae
