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Flat Rock Spider

Selenops sp.

Photo by Irene Brady
Published on Project Noah
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16.9938, -89.0471

Field Notes

Description:

Tan, with brown/white splotches on its legs, this spider was relatively hairless. With a leg span of nearly 2 inches, it still was barely 3/16" in height when at rest. At first I thought I'd squashed it. Legs formatted like this are called "laterigrade," and Selenops spiders are casually referred to as "flatties." I found this one oddly menacing-looking.

Habitat:

This spider was on my veranda between a tabletop and a sheet of plywood that was laid on it. When I lifted the plywood, it stayed in place long enough for me to go for the camera, but when I got close up for the profile shot, it simply disappeared it went so fast over the edge. The veranda is about 15' above ground level, in a Belize forest, with mid-story trees very nearby, so perhaps this is a "flying spider" which landed on the veranda. Check out the links.

Notes:

Being totally surrounded by mid-story trees, I get some interesting visitors to the veranda, which is great in lots of ways except I don't have habitat information for these casual visitors.

Reference Links:

Selenops - Wikipedia, Interesting Flickr photos tagged selenops | Picssr

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (11)
Irene Brady
Thanks for the Spotting of the Week vote. As it happens, this is one of my more fascinating "learner spottings." It took me quite a while online to work out what sort of spider it was, and as always, I learned a great deal about not only "flatties" but also about other spiders it WASN'T as I researched it.
DanielePralong
Congratulations Irene, this excellent contribution has been voted Spotting of the Week! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectnoah/photos/a.10150595289465603.674700.10150120463815603/10158181821265603/?type=3&theater Twitter: https://twitter.com/projectnoah/status/825842216375549952
Irene Brady
Thanks. All credit must go to the spider, of course! <grin>
AshleyT
Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!
Irene Brady
Thank you Daniele. I always find posting with write-ups much more interesting than those without. I expect they are of more value to the Project Noah goals, as well, so I try to include everything I can think of, plus what I am able to find online. I've learned SO much this way!!!

Spotted for Missions

Mission
International Spider Survey
Mission
Mission WILD
Mission
Belizean Biodiversity

Tags

Photographed
PublishedJanuary 25, 2017

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