Unidentified Critters - Help Figure 'Em Out

This thread is a spin off of nator's hobby thread. I realized we had a bunch of international critter experts on this site. I hope this thread can be of some use to those of us who don't know what the hell we're taking pictures of.I'll start The spider is apparently colonial and mostly diurnal. Upper Napo Moist Forest Ecoregion, Ecuador. Legs are approximately 7cm (3") long. Any ideas?Edited by Quetzal, : No reason given.

Here is another pic of the spider in that other thread but from the side: The back on this one looks a lot like the back on the spider you have a picture of. Maybe they are in the same genus, eh? In the other thread: I'd be willing to bet that yours is similiar. Maybe a black and white spotted Argiope, or something like that But then, the non-latin names are funny sometimes.Reminds me of a documentary where the host found a spider and was all like: "This here is yadda-yadda (the latin name) or what some might call a... red... backed... spider." You could totally tell that he was just making up a name that was discriptive of the spider, as it did have a red back. It was funny at the time, maybe you had to have been there ABE:Bah, at secong glance, and further thought, maybe the backs aren't all that similiar. I dunno.Edited by Catholic Scientist, : No reason given.

They don't really look all that similar beyond the fact they're both spiders sitting in webs I asked one of our local guides what it was, and he said "a yellow...backed...silk..." erm. So obviously this is a universal trait.

Well, the both have that raised shelf-like pointy back, but after I looked a little more they don't relly seem all that similiar anymore. Yeah, just making up shit as you go along... that's why its best to stick with the latin names.

Looks like a Banana Spider AKA Golden Silk Spider, Nephila clavipes. some imagesEdited by TrueChristian, : No reason given.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Here are a couple of pics from that cladoceran I have mentioned this past week. The thing is about a mm long, with green algae visible down the center. The swimming antennae are barely visible. The shell/carapax is opened when swimming but closed if disturbed. Unlike Daphnia the entire body can become closed up inside. What appears to be the compound eye is situated just inside the carapx at the hinge on the dorsal back. The creature responds to light and electricity like Daphnia but is not oriented the same while swimming. Explanations in the past depended on the supposition that there are reciprocal muscles in the swimming antennae responsible for differences in trophic behavior. These muscle”” groups may have been lost in this creature or else lack of them was primitive.I can not ID this thing at all. There are some circular Cladocerans, and I can not imagine (perhaps I am wrong) that this not one, but none oval. There are some that close up on themselves but none, Ican find on-line, that close up like this one. Perhaps it's time to go to a real library!!Any help Iding this would be great!!Thanks.Digital photo software is great, with just one click I could enhance the contrast and make the pic much more visible. I simply shot a digital camera at dissecting scope while the crustaceans swam “randomly” below. I do not have a transmission system.Edited by Brad McFall, : morophology term

I think you may be right. Or at least something in the Nephila genus. Interesting that common names get so messed up. What we normally call a banana spider here is actually Phoneutria nigriventer. Here's a pic: She's folded up because she's in the process of molting, so not the worlds best picture of her.

Okay, the last one was obviously too easy. Here's another one I can't identify. Same region. Solitary hunter (not web spinner), nocturnal.

Damn. Our fearless TrueChristian already found a match. This appears to be a male huntsman spider, Heteropoda venatoria.Man, this is too easy.

This isn't really a lack of identification (and no, it's not a spider). I have a tentative identification that I'd like to make a final decision on. This little beauty was found outside my house. My first impression was that it was a Bothrops atrox, the South American fer-de-lance. The head shape in the second pic is pretty consistent with the lancehead family. However, details of the banding pattern, and especially of the dentition - discovered after I cut its head off - are NOT consistent with fer-de-lance. Both characteristics are more consistent with one of the forest pit vipers, such as Bothriopsis punctatus. The fangs are short, straight, and split, rather than long, single and recurved. The banding pattern becomes blurred towards the tail. Any ideas?Edited by Quetzal, : spelling

i feel the need to point out that these are not the same spider. i doubt they're even the same genus, actually. the one you've got is almost certainly the "yellow garden spider" or whatever other name you like for argiope aurantia.jar has positively identified quetzal's as nephila clavipes (no relation, i swear), a "golden silk orbweaver" or "banana spider."we have your variety in my area, actually. i haven't been be recently, but a local park was once covered in them. big suckers, and scary-lookin' too. but apparently quite docile? either way, my friend demanded that we "never go there again."

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yeah, thanks. *shrugs*I have had my pic for a little while and had not really seen any other pix of spiders with a back that jutts out like that since I had taken it (although admittedly I wasn't looking). The I saw Q's spider and it imeediately reminded me of mine because of the way the back of his spider looked.Then I dug up my pic and, I'm guessing through confirmation bias, thought that they did look pretty similiar. At least similiar to me as spiders with wierd backs. But then when I actually looked at them, which was after I posted it, I realized that they weren't really all that similiar.Another case of posting before thinking... Every summer at my parents house, which is near some woods, the get INFESTED with these little bodied brown spiders with relatively really long legs that make fine webs in the corners of all the rooms in their house, well, mostly in the basement.They've never bothered anyone, besides giving them the heeby-geebies. But damn are there a lot of them. And every year.

These showed up a few years ago, on citrus tree branches. There were about twenty of them all told, they stayed for about three days, then disappeared and have not been seen since. Another strange critter

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Looks like a Papilio demoleus caterpillar - they like citrus plants (The Butterfly is also known as the Lime Butterfly).Edited by Modulous, : God...I mean Google, advises me they might be more common than I thought.

Well, the Rio Grande Valley is well known for all the butterflies we get down here, but the Lime Butterfly has never been reported in this area to the best of my knowledge.Also the saddles on these were more prominent and I did not notice any of the little spikey protrusions.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion