Common Spiders Found in Georgia (Part I)

Georgia is the native home place to many of the common spiders found in the Southern regions of the United States of America. Of the thousands of spiders found in these areas, 14 have found their way into the homes of many Georgian residents making them quite popular amongst the people who live there. Two of these spiders will be discussed here while the remaining 12 will be discussed in the other instalments of this article. The articles will cover all the basic information that you would need to know about these spiders: (1) Etymology (how the spiders got their names), (2) Physical description (approximation of their sizes, their colors and their distinguishing marks), (3) Habitat (where these spiders naturally live), (4) Behaviour (the way these spiders move, mate, reproduce, etc.) and (5) Venom (significant facts about the poison that they excrete).

1. Crab Spiders

a. Etymology

Crab spiders got their name from their physical appearance. Although these spiders are really tiny when compared to the actual crab, its physical appearance cannot deny that it does look like a crab. Even its movement is similar to that of a crab; it can only more horizontally or laterally, just like an actual crab.

b. Physical Description

Male Crab spiders are usually smaller than their female counterparts. The body length of the male crab spider is somewhere between 3 and 4 millimetre while the female crab spider can grow as big as 6 to 9 millimetres. These spiders can adapt to the color of their environments. Under normal weather conditions, the color of these spiders can range from white to yellow. These spiders catch their prey through hunting, thus their bodies are designed to be able to do just like that. They have flattened and short bodies with two long front legs.

c. Habitat

Because crab spiders cannot move fast, they rely on stealth to catch their prey. They hide under tree barks or under flower petals to wait for their prey to come. Crap spiders do not use their silk to weave web traps, instead, they prefer to ambush their prey and use their strong venom to immobilize them. Their only use for their silk is for egg protection through egg sacs.

d. Behaviour

Just like a real crab, these spiders can walk side wards, forwards and backwards without difficulty. Within 2 to 4 days, they can slowly change their body colors from plain white to yellow in order to adapt to their surroundings. Their reproductive organs are called palp organ (for males) and epigyne (for females), these two functions just like how a lock and key works. After fertilization, the female crab spider weaves a cocoon to contain the eggs and then puts the cocoon in an egg-sac that is securely made from a folded leaf fully covered in silk. The life of a female crab spider is quite dramatic as it dies soon after her eggs hatch.

e. Venom

It's no brainer why crab spiders depend so much on their venom. Scientists found out that they can produce potent venom that is enough to immobilize insects and other prey that are many times larger than they are. Nevertheless, this venom is still harmless to humans.

2. Cellar Spiders

a. Etymology

Spiders get their names through the various characteristics that make them distinct from all other spiders. For example, the Cellar spider got its name from its unique fondness to the cellars and the other places that closely resemble a cellar.

b. Physical Description

Cellar spiders usually have body lengths that measure anywhere between 2 and 6 millimetres. The first pair of their legs is normally about 5.5 times longer than their bodies. In general, cellar spiders have very small bodies and very skinny, long legs. Like all spiders, they have three more pairs of legs and they also have a pair of fangs called chelicerae. They are usually brown or grey colored.

c. Habitat

These spiders prefer to live in basements, barns, sheds and attics where light is scarce. they build their silk traps in these places and usually depend on the insects caught through these traps. They do not weave their houses and traps to a definite shape or size. They do not care so much about their web that when the time comes when it's no longer sticky enough to catch prey or when food has already become scarce in the location where the web has been built, the Cellar spider will not hesitate to abandon it. Moreover, Cellar spiders are known to leach on other spider's web. It can mimic the appearance of a trapped insect and lure the owner of the web to come close to it, the Cellar spider will then attack the unsuspecting spider and feed on it.

d. Behaviour

Cellar spiders are amongst the relatively few spiders that can find their food through hunting and trapping. As hunters, cellar spiders use their web to stop their prey from moving. They bite their prey and inject them with their venom to completely immobilize or kill them. As web-makers, they use their irregularly shaped webs to catch flying insects; insects caught in their webs will be wrapped in silk and strangled to death. When cellar spiders are threatened, they would vibrate their web in an attempt to scare away whatever it is that is threatening them.

e. Venom

Cellar spiders have tiny yet extremely sharp fangs called chelicerae. Nevertheless, although these fangs are really sharp, these are also too tiny to pierce through human skin, that means that humans are still very safe around these spiders. But to other insects and spiders, these fangs are enough to cause serious lacerations that can give way to for their venom to penetrate into their victim's bodies. They produce neurotoxin venom, which means that the venom that they produce targets the nerves of the victims causing a deadly blow to insects and other spiders.

Read the other parts of this article to find out more about the other 12 spider species commonly found in Gerogia.

To be continued.