Another spider to identify

[Molly Monroe]

While we're on the subject, this one was up at Pigeon Butte and thought our chairs hiding in the bushes would make a good place to nest (we found a shed exoskeleton under there). We tried to relocate it but it fell in the gravel only later to reappear on my leg! It was quickly returned to the bushes to find a new place to nest.
I haven't looked it up yet, any guesses?
M~

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//"Endangered species are sensitive indicators of how we are treating the planet and we should be listening carefully to their message

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[Lisa Millbank]

That one is tough to identify, but my guess is that he is a "tube-dwelling spider" of the family Segestriidae.  I can't count his eyes in this picture, but if he has 6 eyes, that guess would be right.  Also, it appears from the picture that his first 3 pairs of legs are "forward oriented" and the final pair is backward.  That's another characteristic of that family, but hard to tell from the angle he's at.  He does look like an adult male by the swollen palps on his face.

Today, we cleaned out the closet that is on our apartment deck.  It was truly a disaster in there...but if you were a Common House Spider, Parasteatoda tepidariorum, you would have felt right at home in that mess that hadn't been thoroughly cleaned for YEARS.  I evicted lots of these shiny round-bodied spiders and, although the bigger ones are a bit creepy-looking, they are harmless.  I felt badly about disturbing the peaceful homes of all these little critters.  We rescued some of them and they are probably now trying to find a secluded place to build their webs.  Their body shape looks a lot like a Black Widow, but they're more or less speckled.  They do belong to the family Theridiidae along with the Black Widow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_house_spider

I haven't ever seen a true Black Widow around here, but Don's seen one downtown.  I grew up in Medford and we had lots of them around.  So when I moved to Corvallis I was confused by the Common House Spiders and thought they might have been male Black Widows, or a different color phase, or another Latrodectus species.  It's nice we didn't have to worry about spider bites while cleaning out our closet today.  My family used to take the precaution of wearing gloves whenever we'd rummage through the shed or outdoor closet because of the Black Widows.

Lisa

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