2016 February 5

   Bryan Gates sends a photograph of a  Barberry Geometer Moth from Saratoga Beach (Oyster River), February 4, 2016.   The caterpillar feeds on Mahonia and Berberis.

Coryphista meadii (Lep.: Geometridae)  Bryan Gates

   Annie Pang writes:   I was vacuuming up some very old (and very STRONG) spider silk down in the basement and it must have caused this spiderto take the high road up into my living room.  I was eating my dinner when I saw it scurrying across the carpet and I threw my tray on the floor to grab a tub so that I could get a decent picture.  It looks awfully BIG with the legs and I was glad to be able to get some close shots of it.  The body is about 1.2 centimetres long and the spider appears much larger than this with its long (and fast) legs.  I tried to release it but it didn’t seem to want to go. 

Eratigena sp. (maybe atrica) (Ara.:  Agelenidae)   Annie Pang

   It used to be called Tegenaria, but is now called Eratigena.  Robb Bennett explains:

Eratigena is a recently composed (2013) anagram of the quite old (1804) name Tegenaria.  According to my spider names lexicon, Tegenaria is from a Latin noun, tegenarius (meaning “mat-maker), itself derived from a Greek word meaning the same thing.