Unido: 11.nov.2022 Última actividad: 31.mar.2023 iNaturalist
"Stick with the Lord like a spider's web and you'll live with Him forever and ever."
I am a Christian homeschooler from Dayton, Ohio, with an oversized obsession for spiders as well as any other organism, though, spiders are my area of expertise and have been my favorite organisms ever since I first heard of them. Some of my favorite non-spider organisms are centipedes (Chilopoda), harvestmen and other arachnids (Opiliones and other Arachnida), snakes (Serpentes), anteaters (Vermilingua), and rhinoceroses (Rhinocerotidae). I am bewildered by Creation, so aside from the identifications I make, I love to observe God's amazing creatures, especially spiders! Because I have so many spider stats and facts I really want to share with others, I am currently writing a new comprehensive overview of the 132 current spider families, as well as information on many previous and future families. Some of these facts include facts such as that jumping spiders can actually sleep! Others include those such as that bright lungless spiders probably have no related spider families and are probably not even araneomorphs! My book, non-profit, will likely be sold on blurb.com as A Field Guide to Spider Families of the World for about $32 (base price). The book includes characters for distinguishing all 132 families and lists all 4,300 spider genera, many spider genera will be illustrated with stunningly beautiful photographs from my kind contributors. My many thanks go out to them! The photographs, as well as the few illustrations, include faces, egg sacs, courtship behaviors, and more. The taxonomic affinities are further provided in the information on each family as well as biology of many genera when known. If you don't have any prior experience in spider terminology (i.e., you aren't familiar with the many, many body parts), my book will have an easy-to-understand introduction to these terms, but you must memorize and recognize them otherwise my book may not be of any use to you. If you are ever reading anything I write and it just doesn't make much sense, feel free to message me via private message and I will happily explain!
If wished to be informed in the time of the publishing, one must follow me or, better yet, join the Spiders of Earth project. Both ways, I will post journals on the updates of my book.
Feel free to use my photos for anything! It would be very cool if you could send me a quick message first explaining why you are using it and/or where I can view it when it is finished! I'm also on Flickr under the same username, but there I won't post as many photos.
Most people don't realize that you can download full-sized photos via iNaturalist if the observer uploaded that size. Though iNat downgrades the size, you can select the information icon on the bottom of the photo in an observation. There, you can select small, medium, large, or original sizes. Take this public domain palpimanid, for example:
https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/55022102?size=original
I never trust the iNaturalist AI when adding identifications to others' observations, and I suggest you do the same. If you don't know, don't identify that observation or taxon at all. However, I do use the AI for my own observations as they don't affect anyone but myself.
I can suggest identifications for spiders anywhere, but Ohio and Central Africa are my stronger areas and I mostly like to identify the following spider families: Anapidae, Archaeidae, Caponiidae, Huttoniidae, Malkaridae, Mecysmaucheniidae, Oonopidae, Orsolobidae, Pacullidae, Palpimanidae, Stenochilidae, Symphytognathidae, Tetrablemmidae, Theridiosomatidae. I also like other spiders in the primarily haplogyne and secondarily haplogyne groups. Secondary haplogyne spiders are those with epigyna that resemble primarily haplogyne spiders, but they are still technically entelegyne. When you try to identify spiders, please be conservative when you don't know, and always be glad if someone corrects you, they're just helping you learn more! Note that I don't really actively ID photos anymore, that is, aside from palpimanoids and the spiders in Ohio and Central Africa. Still feel free to tag me, though!
Current stats:
*About/over
Note: sometimes are the Caponiidae placed in their very own suborder/infraorder known as the Epulmonae; also note that the stats above do not include captive individuals
Current goals:
Future goals:
Completed goals:
What I use for macro photography at the moment (unfortunately!)
Projects I focus on most:
https://www.inaturalist.org/comments?utf8=%E2%9C%93&utf8=%E2%9C%93&mine=true&q=&commit=Search&q=&commit=Search
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/map?ident_user_id=huttonia#2/17.688/31.923
https://www.inaturalist.org/identifications?page=9&taxon_id=367189&user_id=huttonia
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?ident_user_id=huttonia&place_id=any&subview=map
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=31&subview=map&taxon_id=47118&unobserved_by_user_id=huttonia&verifiable=any&view=species
My absolute favorite observations:
Chevroned Huttonia cf. palpimanoides
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/147071653
Spider-hatted snake Aplopeltura boa
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/86030605
Super camo Arctosa littoralis
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/139423750
Super fluffy huntsman Megaloremmius leo
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/36527066
Undescribed Brazilian wandering spider-like huntsman Heteropoda "phoneutrioides"
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38722066
Undescribed fiery red-orange huntsman Heteropoda "thraca"
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38793689
Odd-jawed jumper Tylogonus parabolicus
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/129683900
Focused eyes of a fisher Dolomedes tenebrosus
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/149374656
Somewhat chunky scorpion Opistophthalmus carinatus
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/149121661
Beetle infested palpimanid party Palpimanus gibbulus
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146641197
Two different spiders coexisting Palpimanus gibbulus
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146297565
and
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145688559
Waterhead palpimanid Palpimanus gibbulus
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145366624
Palpimanid left out of the party Palpimanus gibbulus
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144997754
Recommended websites:
Recommended books (still under construction):
Profile photo: a sketch of me as a palp-footed spider of the genus Palpimanus, reading a book on palpimanoids (maybe a future book I'll write?!, lol). The photos in the book has a left page, err, right for you, of Chedimanops and a right page, left for you, of Hybosidella. These two palpimanid genera are the only entelegyne spiders in the world with two eyes. Other spiders are known with two eyes (e.g., some caponiids and microstigmatids), but they are haplogyne. Despite what my photo shows, my favorite spider is actually the New Zealand endemic Hutton's palp-footed spider (Huttonia palpimanoides). My second-to-most favorite family of spiders is the extinct Lagonomegopidae. They are probably closest to Archaeidae, but it is said that they are relatives of Huttoniidae. The family Palpimanidae currently inludes the monotypic genus Badia of which probably belongs to Zodariidae. Palpimanids and zodariids are similar, but palpimanoids and araneoids are also similar.