Bugging You From San Juan Island

I thought I’d take a moment to profile a new-to-me spider found in my kitchen last week. This one was awfully small at about 4-5 mm, and threading the beginning of a web from my kitchen counter to the dishwasher. I needed a cup for my morning coffee, and the kitchen (at least our kitchen) is not a safe place for a free roaming spider. Not with Herman the Persian and his furry duster of a tail.

I collected her gently, took these photos, and released her outdoors on one of my mint plants. My efforts at ID-ing this unusual beauty, beyond family Tetragnathidae and possibly genus (Metellina) necessitated sending the photos to my friend, Rod Crawford at the Burke Museum, for further help.

Rod quickly wrote back with, “Metellina mimetoides, only local species in genus with humped abdomen.”

Metellina mimetoides is a species native to North America and found along the Pacific Coast from Southern California through Northern Washington. I would say these are not particularly abundant though. This was my first ever sighting of one on San Juan Island, WA.

And here she is!