monday_spider

I am a Finnish nature photography hobbyist with special ❤️ for spiders. Also professor of mathematics at Uni Helsinki.

[monday_spider @MondaySpider]

Forest Crab Spider (Xysticus luctuosus). #thomisidae

[monday_spider @MondaySpider]

This Monday goes to a sleek beast. Meet Tetragnatha dearmata, a slender orb-web weaver. #tetragnathidae #spidermacro

[monday_spider @MondaySpider]

I stopped for a coffee in Torino, Italy, and noticed this pretty arachnid lady in the corner. She kindly agreed to visit my travel studio. Meet Holocnemus pluchei from family #pholcidae of daddy long-leg spiders. #spidermacro

[monday_spider @MondaySpider]

Pachygnatha listeri male spider. Its substantial jaws match the genus name: “pachys”=thick and “gnathos”=jaw. #spidermacro #tetragnathidae

[monday_spider @MondaySpider]

Metellina mengei, the ”spring season weaver of or-webs with a hole in the middle”. This male spider has a delightfully wide interpretation of spring, as I found it in October. #spidermacro #tetragnathidae

[monday_spider @MondaySpider]

Cute little zebra jumper, probably Salticus cingulatus. #spidermacro #salticidae

[monday_spider @MondaySpider]

Introducing the unassuming species Anguliphantes angulipalpis. Male in the first photo, female in the second.

These are small spiders, 2.5mm in length, living in leaf litter. They hunt their food hanging under small horizontal webs. #spidermacro #linyphiidae

[monday_spider @MondaySpider]

This Monday goes to the forest floor dweller Macrargus rufus.

I found this 4mm long beast by sifting leaf litter. This species is abundant all over Finland.

The ID process was arduous until I noticed the crooked “glass spear” in the pedipalp. #linyphiidae #spider

[monday_spider @MondaySpider]

@mathandcobb 😅
I do a lot of school visits with math talks here in Finland. I wonder how high schoolers would react to that shirt… Thanks for the tip!

[monday_spider @MondaySpider]

Incestophantes crucifer, a small sheet-web weaver I caught with a bark trap. #linyphiidae #spidermacro

[monday_spider @MondaySpider]

Trochosa terricola, the notorious Earth Bear Spider. #lycosidae #spidermacro

[monday_spider @MondaySpider]

This Monday we go with a classic. Meet Araneus diadematus, the quintessential orb-weaver. #spidermacro #araneidae

[monday_spider @MondaySpider]

Salticus cingulatus jumping spider.

Actually, the Latin verb “saltare” means both “to jump” and “to dance”. So is this a dancing spider, after all? 💃

#salticidae #spidermacro

[monday_spider @MondaySpider]

Macrargus boreus spider I met the day before yesterday. This almost 3mm long male lived under a huge spruce tree at lakeside in Central Finland. I caught him by sifting leaf litter. #spidermacro #linyphiidae

[monday_spider @MondaySpider]

Clubiona subsultans, a sac spider that loves coniferous trees. #spidermacro #clubionidae

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Robertus arundineti, a tiny cobweb weaver living in swamps. #spidermacro #theridiidae

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Running crab spider Philodromus cespitum. #spidermacro #philodromidae

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Zora spinimana male spider. #spidermacro #miturgidae

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A baby jumping spider, of the kind Pseudeuophrys erratica.
#salticidae

[monday_spider @MondaySpider]

Meet the Ruby Queen of leaf litter: Gonatium rubellum. I found this beauty by sifting leaf litter in the recreation island Seurasaari in Helsinki, Finland. #linyphiidae #spidermacro