Diario de veravilla

For this observation journal, I wanted to concentrate specifically on the spiders I could find in and around my house, on one specific day. (Actual location is left to iNaturalist to randomly decide on purpose for the express reason of not allowing my exact address to be determined.)

I expected to find a surplus of brown widow spiders, as I had in the years before of living here. However, I ended up only finding two smallish specimens that were possibly juveniles. This was especially surprising, since in the years before, they were absolutely everywhere in the backyard, and absolutely huge. Instead I ended up finding an abundance of good sized funnel weavers - there were around 3 more funnel weavers seen that ran away before I could take pictures, bringing the total to 6. I researched the possible cause of the decrease in brown widows, thinking maybe the funnel weavers had something to do with it, and was surprised to learn Colonus spiders are a regular predator - I had photographed a very friendly one a few weeks earlier! I'm wondering if the addition of mulch has something to do with this - since we've started mulching the right side of the yard, we've seen an uptick in Colonus and funnel weavers. I found no direct correlation between brown widows and funnel weavers, though. Perhaps the brown widows and funnel weavers compete for the same nesting spots and food sources, and with the Colonus preying on the brown widows, the funnel weavers are able to move in and take over. Possibly worth noting that the brown widows photographed weren't near mulched ground.

Additionally, 3 cellar spiders were observed, although only two are pictured (they are horrible posers, always!), a house spider (as usual, they are everywhere...), and a nice treat of a gorgeous orbweaver! I usually see one or two a year, and this one was quite far from the house this time.