Favoritos de bradleyallf

We have been watching it since 06/29/2016, when we observed it holding onto a bunch of eggs, and posted it on inaturalist. The eggs hatched yesterday or today (07/14/2016.) The first picture shows some of the spiderlings with the adult in the background. The second picture is a close up of the spiderlings, and the third picture is of the adult.

A study in phenology; within ten feet of one another, three female Marbled Cellar Spiders have built their spherical maternity webs and have egg bundles in various stages of development.

The other two records:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/46192906

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/46192828

Found on the blinds in my room. Took it to the kitchen area for some photos, then released it there, and it got eyes on a fly right away. It was verrry slowly creeping up on this fly for a good 5 minutes before it pounced.

3.5mm

Prey observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/15213349

We've had a lot of these show up recently. I took some photos of the jumping spider in the kitchen area and then released it there, and it found one of these flies right away. The fly being eaten was just a few inches away from the one that lived (for now). I'm assuming they're the same kind.

~3mm

spider observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/15213348

Roughly 1.8 cm long. Was found inside my house by my mother on an umbrella, then captured and photographed. I attempted to release it but it is mostly immobile and non-responsive-- I assume it is reaching the end of its life.

7 part photostory, this one is for the fly
Photo 1:
I Thought It Was A Yellowjacket
When I came inside my house, what I thought was a yellow jacket came in with me. This is a problem because I like to go barefoot and I have cats that could get stung also. I went to get a broom to try to slap it down out of the air. When I came back it had gone to a window with blinds. I discovered that a tiny spider had solved my problem. The "yellow jacket" had been caught in a web. Later when I got the insect identified by experts, it turned out to be a fly pretending to be a yellow jacket. This is an example of Batesian mimicry which is when a harmless, tasty species mimics another species that is toxic or foul tasting or dangerous in order to be protected from predators. Sure fooled me. It did not deter the spider.
Photo 2:
Spider To The Rescue
The spider solved my problem. Here is the spider coming to take a look at what it caught in its web. I was shooting these photos through open blinds.
Photo 3:
Underside Of The Spider
I took this shot to help with getting an id on the spider.
Photo 4:
Topside Of The Spider
As the spider wrapped some silk around the fly's legs, I got a shot of the top side of the spider.
Photo 5:
Uncropped Shot For Perspective
I left this shot uncropped to show how I was having to do this, shooting between two blinds slats.

Photo 6:
Spider Injects venom
The spider may have been fooled by the mimicry because it avoided the end of the fly where a stinger would be if it were a wasp. What the spider did, as shown here, was to bite the leg which injected venom. The fly stopped struggling shortly after that.
Photo 7:
The Spider Won
I had to leave at this point so took this last photo of the spider. Several hours later when I got back the fly was wrapped up in silk for a later meal. The next morning there was nothing left to be seen.
Fly id confirmed in bugguide here: https://bugguide.net/node/view/1616641

These Mosquitos are currently all over, and they keep getting into the house. I found this one inside on a wall late at night. Its back legs were raised into the air and moving slightly up and down. Photo 17 shows a measurement in centimeters.

Photos 1, 4-7, and 9-16 were brightened in Photoshop.