# Have we had a spider ID thread yet this week? OK, here's one **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 11, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-had-a-spider-id-thread-yet-this-week-ok-heres-one/585144 "2011-06-11T20:28:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-had-a-spider-id-thread-yet-this-week-ok-heres-one/585144/1 "2011-06-11T20:28:37Z")
I was out in the front yard today trimming the low-hanging branches on our pin oak tree. As I was cutting up and bundling the trimmed branches, I noticed some spiders running around on some of the branches. They are small slender black spiders but have a very large round orange or red abdomen. Sorry, no pictures - when I came back outside with the camera, naturally I couldn’t find any of them. I’ve tried googling but most of the results I get back are for black widow spiders. I don’t think that’s what they are, but on the other hand I don’t want to go reaching into a pile of tree branches if I’ve got dangerous spiders running around in them. Oh yeah, location would help. Northeast Kansas. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-had-a-spider-id-thread-yet-this-week-ok-heres-one/585144/2 "2011-06-11T20:43:25Z")
Just saw another one but it disappeared again before I could get the camera. More info though - the two front legs are very long and are yellow at the ends. ---
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-had-a-spider-id-thread-yet-this-week-ok-heres-one/585144/3 "2011-06-11T22:05:41Z")
Take a look at [these orb weaver pics](http://www.google.com/search?um=1&hl=en&rlz=1W1GPEA_en&biw=1215&bih=909&tbm=isch&oq=kansas+marbled+orb+weaver+&aq=f&aqi=&q=kansas%20marbled%20orb%20weaver). Any features look similar? ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-had-a-spider-id-thread-yet-this-week-ok-heres-one/585144/4 "2011-06-11T22:47:22Z")
Nothing in there looks like what I saw, but I think you’re on the right track. After doing some more googling the long front legs with the yellow ends and the large round abdomen both had me thinking some kind of orb weaver. The only thing is, on most of the orb weaver pics I’ve seen the spiders have stripes or a sort of pattern to the color - these guys were all black except for a big solid reddish-orange abdomen (no stripes or patterns) and the yellow on the ends of the front legs. If I find something that looks like what I saw I’ll post it. (I’ve given up on trying to get a picture myself. They won’t stay in one place while I run to get the camera! :mad:) ---
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-had-a-spider-id-thread-yet-this-week-ok-heres-one/585144/5 "2011-06-11T22:59:21Z")
Hmmm, my Google-fu is weak today, but thanks to your thread, I found this cool insect/spider id engine on [insectidentification.org](http://www.insectidentification.org/). I can’t tell how large the database is, but the idea is sound.