10-Aug-2015 Lumberman's Monument, Michigan

Site location (click to enlarge)

Red pine forest

Michigan is now on the World Map of Pine Cone Spiders, joining the US states of Washington, Oregon, California and Massachusetts, and the province of South Holland in The Netherlands.  I had the opportunity to tap two species of fallen pine cones at Lumberman's Monument in Michigan's Huron-Manistee National Forests earlier this week, and found spiders in both sets.

Red pine cone

White pine stand

I tapped 50 red pine (Pinus resinosa) cones from the woods near the Monument campground and collected 5 spiders and 1 species.  Fifty tapped eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) cones from a stand near the monument parking lot produced 10 spiders and 2 species, plus 11 harvestmen.  The spiders were from the same families I found to be common in eastern white pine cones in Massachusetts, including Salticidae, Thomisidae, Linyphiidae, Phrurolithidae and Dictynidae.

Eastern white pine cones

Bronze cones are spider habitat too!

Amusingly, I even found that a spider had inhabited the sculpted white pine cone at the foot of the monument's statue. 

The Lumberman's Monument statue depicts a river rat, a
timber cruiser and a sawyer but omits the timber baron

Beautiful red pine bark