Spider ID

August 7, 2014 2:16 PM

I saw a cool spider and I'm curious what it is, but I didn't have a camera on hand. It was pale, about a centimeter long with brown stripes. At first I thought it only had 4 legs, but upon closer inspection I saw 4 more legs grouped together by where its "head" should be. 2 of those legs were slightly longer, almost looking like faux-antennas. I thought it was an ant at first, but it was clearly spinning a web.
posted by gorbweaver to Pets & Animals (6 answers total)

This is going to be impossible to identify unless you can get a pic and tell us where you are.
posted by Specklet at 2:24 PM on August 7, 2014

Response by poster: I'm in Atlanta.
posted by gorbweaver at 2:30 PM on August 7, 2014

All spiders have a pair of those antenna-like leg-like things around their mouths. They're called pedipalps. That is in addition to 4 pairs of legs. And then they also have paired mouthparts that are also frequently visible--chelicerae.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:05 PM on August 7, 2014

Yeah, unfortunately "striped and brown" is kind of the default mode for spiders. This is a good illustration of how chelicerae and pedipalps can look leggy.
posted by pullayup at 3:23 PM on August 7, 2014

The Ant Mimic Spider matches your description pretty well.
posted by pipeski at 3:26 PM on August 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

Was it sitting in a web? a horizontal web or a vertical web?
posted by dhruva at 7:38 PM on August 7, 2014