Arkansan Spiders

The Heifer Ranch is home to quite the variety of large spiders, including the tarantulas we found a couple years ago. Most of them work hard at keeping the insect pests down. Here’s a collection of some of them we ran into this year.

A green spider from near the Heifer global village's refugee camp.
A green lynx spider from near the Heifer global village’s refugee camp.
A brown spider found in the brush on the dam.
A brown spider found in the brush on the dam.
A wolf spider with babies on its back. Found in the grass near the foot of the dam.
A wolf spider with babies on its back. Found in the grass near the foot of the dam.
Yellow garden spider found in the herb garden.
Yellow garden spider found in the herb garden.

The Eyes of the Spider

Close up of spider.
Close up of spider.

I’m taking a small group of kids hiking/cross-country running for Physical Education this quarter. With the heat wave of last week, and having to clear the trail up the hillslope, today was the first day we actually got all the way to the top of the ridge. On our way back down, one of my students had stopped to look at a frond of tiny, pretty flowers when she spotted this beautiful, yellow spider with its brilliantly, iridescent catch. We brought them back to the lab to look at it under the microscope. It’ll also be interesting to observe what the spider does with the fly.

The eyes of the spider.
The eyes of the spider.
A spider with its rather large catch.
A spider with its rather large catch.