Saturday, March 13, 2010

Six-spotted Fishing Spider - Dolomedes triton

A couple weeks of warm weather in early March isn't enough to bring these beautiful spiders out as the bogs are still frozen and covered with snow, but I can hardly wait as this is one of my favorite spiders. Stopping at our favorite spots down the West Arm Road usually yields quite a few. They move across the top of the water with ease and when they feel threatened they simply flip under the leaf or log or floating weeds that they're on and remain submerged till the danger is gone, then they just pop back up on top again.