Sierra dome spider (juvenile) (Neriene litigiosa) | Project Noah

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Photo by KarenL

Published on Project Noah

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35.8987, -86.9624

Field Notes

Description:

Itsy bitsy spider - it's body measures less than 1mm!!! Looks all black to the naked eye, but the wonder of macro exposes it's beautiful silvery spotted abdomen. Much more exciting than the brown recluses I usually find in the house!

Habitat:

Our pantry.

Notes:

I spotted this teeny tiny speck in the pantry - it's one of the tiny spiders that float around on a thread of silk. I popped it into a small yoghurt pot for photos & amazingly they came out!

Reference Links:

Species Neriene litigiosa - Sierra Dome Spider - BugGuide.Net

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (10)

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Added to new Spiders of Tennessee mission - http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/9135391

Thanks Greg! I thought I'd found another one a few days later - unfortunately the macro revealed it was a tick! :(

Cool pic of the tiny guy. Love macro stuff. Good find, I have not seen one before.

There is still a bit of debate on bugguide over the identity of this little guy but I think this is the most likely species as it actually built itself a little dome web in the yoghurt carton!

I see you have found the name of this little critter. Nice one! Thanks for the update Karen.

Updated with ID provided by bugguide.net.

I've posted this on bugguide.net so I will hopefully be able to narrow the ID down further.

Thanks jp! The silvery look may be caused by the flash - sadly my eyesight isn't keen enough to tell the true color on this little guy!

Teeny tiny speck is an understatement Karen! Nice find! In some of the photos the white(?) spots on its abdomen seem to reflect like, almost silver like or was that just the camera flash?

I've added another photo to show the spider's size in relation to a 3" diameter (at the top) yoghurt pot.

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