Above are a few photos from a long, mid-summer bike ride on the Mon River Trail yesterday. My destination was the historic beehive coke ovens at mile marker 22, where one of the most elusive and delicate of Appalachia’s terrestrial orchids, cranefly orchid (Tipularia discolor), blooms this time of year. This colonizing perennial has one of the most fascinating life-cycles in the plant kingdom. Hairy leafcup (Smallanthus uvedalia), also known as bear’s foot due to its enormous, lobed leaves, is another great summer wildflower. This perennial’s massive blooms arguably draw even more pollinators than those of milkweed.

From top: American bellflower (Campanula americana), a tall, graceful lover of shady woodland edges; an arrowhead orb weaver (Verrucosa arenata), enjoying an early brunch from her delicately-spun web; an eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) taking a sip of sweet nectar from hairy leafcup; the bright yellow flowerheads of hairy leafcup, which draw a steady stream of pollinators; historic beehive coke ovens, crucial to fueling the iron and steel industry in the late nineteenth century; and the delicate, drooping flowers of cranefly orchid, also known as crippled cranefly orchid. 

Arrowhead Orbweaver (Verrucosa arenata)

ok at further glance im near positive your spider friend is Verrucosa arenata or the arrowhead spider

You can see one in the same pose here~

(behind the cut for Spider Pics! can't imagine anyone who follows me is yet squeamish about bugs but better safe than sorry)

hmmmm it looks like it's in a similar group (i guess orbweaver in general) but this one is a lot less rounded? the body is longer and more pointed i mean, these arrowhead ones look sort of more compact

and the pose is a bit different! it's currently been at rest with all legs stretched out in front together except for the back 2 pairs

it also lacks the spiky edges on the abdomen - there are just 2 nubby spikes on the upper back, and the sides are otherwise smooth. it also has a dark stripe down the middle of the abdomen, between the spiky bits

if it helps i'm in the UK and it looks like the Arrowhead species is a north american one. not ruling anything out because it's sitting on a non-native plant but hmm

mine is also less shiny, more matte/soft

BUT!! that website did say this about them:

"The arrowhead spider usually rests centered in its web head-up instead of head-down."

and it IS sitting upside down hanging off the underside of the web, so i am inclined to believe they're of a similar kind?

it's about 5-6mm long from the ends of the legs to the abdomen. abdomen's about 3mm

i was gonna say maybe this one is a male but apparently the male arrowheads don't have the white triangle on them at all

The Plot Thickens it seems... but the comparisons are very good and thank you for the help even if i'm not convinced it's quite the same one! it definitely helps n-arrow things down. get it narrow like arrow like an arrowh[i am shot by snipers]

Verrucosa arenata

“Arrowhead Orbweaver”

Almost walked straight into this ones web, very glad I didn’t and was able to take a photo of her instead.

Red arrowhead spiders, a species of orb weaver. They come in other colors, but the red ones look the coolest. These little bastards are notorious for building huge webs across trails in the woods, right at face level. In fact, the one in the last three pics had a person-shaped hole in its web (I tried to take a pics but they didn't turn out). The one in the first four pics kept throwing up its legs in some kind of arachnid gang sign every time I would scold my dog for pulling on her leash in an attempt to threaten me. And you know what? I felt threatened.

Arrowhead Spider - Verrucosa arenata ♀

Arrowhead Spider (by me)

Arrowhead Orbweaver (Verrucosa arenata)

Arrowhead orb weaver by Jon Nichols Via Flickr: A small spider I first noticed this year.

A few photos above from an early morning hike at the Friendship Hill National Historic Site near Pt. Marion, Pennsylvania. If you want to learn more about the history of this sprawling estate, you can go to this link or search for prior posts from the main search page of my Tumblr blog. In addition to the historic homestead of Albert Gallatin, the park features ten miles of hiking trails through verdant oak-hickory and riparian forests. This time of year, the Central Appalachian forest is rich with fungi, legumes, berries, and the loveliest orb-weavers imaginable.

From top: wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia), also known as yellow ironweed, a late summer aster so named because the petioles of its leaves run down the plant's stem; northern spicebush (Lindera benzoin), a gorgeous native shrub whose bright red berries in late summer are followed by the most extraordinary gold foliage in the fall; orange mycena (Mycena leaiana), a lovely, gregarious fungi of deciduous logs whose pigment has shown antibacterial and anti-cancer properties; the ripened but dangerously toxic berries of pokeweed (Phytolacca americana), whose young leaves are used by mountain folk to make poke sallet (but only after repeated cleansings to remove the toxins); American hog-peanut (Amphicarpaea bracteata), a lovely twining vine whose roots and ground nut are edible; cutleaf coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata), also known as green-headed coneflower and wild goldenglow, a close relative of black-eyed Susan with gorgeous, pinnately-dissected leaves (the leaf photo also shows the characteristic tri-foliate leaf pattern of hog-peanut); zig-zag goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis), one of two adorable woodland goldenrods that grow in this area (the other being blue-stemmed goldenrod), both of which produce clusters of brilliant yellow flowers in both their leaf axils and at the ends of their stems; steeplebush (Spiraea tomentosa), also known as hardhack, which produces delicate plumes of pink flowers in late summer; a spined micrathena (Micrathena gracilis), which has ensnared a fly in her web; and an arrowhead orb weaver (Verrucosa arenata), also known as a triangle orb-weaver, a sparkling gem of an arachnid that reels in its prey like a fisherman dragging in a net.

In the world of cool and interesting species I didn't know existed until today, meet Verrucosa arenata (Arrowhead Orb-weaver), which could more accurately be described as 'spider with an orchid on its abdomen'

In case you're wondering if my trying to get a decent picture bothered it, during this shoot a gnat flew into its web and it immediately wrapped it up, but did not react to me at all, so I'm guessing not.

Verrucosa arenata, also known as the arrowhead spider, arrowhead orb weaver, or triangle orb weaver, is a species of orb-weaver spider (family Araneidae). It is widely distributed in the New World. Other species of the genus Verrucosa occur in North and South America. (at Arlington, Virginia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTOLlQcs_L6tu_LQVP-6Wz8hjrTMVAcrhIVkSk0/?utm_medium=tumblr

Verrucosa arenata, Arrowhead Orbweaver #spider #spiderbro #orbweaver #nature #naturephotography #macrophotography https://www.instagram.com/p/CSXYxktLY8a/?utm_medium=tumblr

Triangle Orbweaver (Verrucosa arenata) [OC] [800x1200]

http://dlvr.it/N7DSYS #sfwp #new #reddit

Arrowhead Spider, Verrucosa arenata (by me)