April 2 Dark Fishing Spider

Our task this weekend was to tear down a 12x12 screenhouse in Seneca, Illinois at our family getaway. A silver maple tree in the yard has two inch flowers and grass is very green already in the prairie state. As we removed various decorations and pieces of the house, we revealed a fun variety of creatures. One was this dark fishing spider (Dolomedes tenebrosus), sitting absolutely still behind an aluminum sign, and remaining so for the next four hours. According to Larry Weber, these spiders are commonly seen far from water on cabin walls. The body length on this one was over an inch with a leg span of three inches long. These super long legs are a key identifier for fishing spiders which do usually hunt on water. Other telling marks are the four black spots on the abdomen with two angular stripes on the very bottom. When this piece of trim was the only piece of roof left, this spider finally moved on, maybe over to our shed.