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| Mill Creek collection site. Click to enlarge. |
Almost two years ago, in February, 2016, I
tapped cones dropped by an eastern white pine (
Pinus strobus) tree growing in the parking lot of an office park in Mill Creek (Snohomish County). Among the spiders I collected that day were two juvenile
Ozyptila praticola, the introduced thomisid that I've been studying. Finding myself back in Mill Creek this day, I decided to tap cones there again, in hopes of finding a mature
O. praticola specimen. But though I tapped 65 cones this time around, I found no spiders in them at all!
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Tree to the left: no spiders in cones!
Tree to the right: spiders few but worthy! |
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| The fallen cone microhabitat |
Undeterred, I crossed the driveway to tap a new set of cones that had fallen from a different
P. strobus. The spiders weren't exactly plentiful; 100 tapped cones produced only 7 spiders, and none of them were
O. praticola. However, four specimens were mature and therefore identifiable to species: two
Tachygyna vancouverana (Linyphiidae) males, one
Tenuiphantes tenuis (Linyphiidae) female, and one
Cryptachaea blattea (Theridiidae) male. Better than nothing!
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