This is funny, but I have never seen a bolas spider. Have you?
They’re on the checklist of Minnesota spiders, though, so they exist this far north. I’m going to have to make finding one an objective of my summer research plans. They’re nocturnal, though — I might turn into that weird guy poking around in the neighborhood bushes and trees late at night. I swear, officer, I’m not a peeping tom, I’m just looking for arachnids.
Hmm, the cemetery might be a safe place for nocturnal spider watching.
Do yourselves a big favor and watch all of zefrank1’s true facts videos.
I have yes. And more exotic species, though I might be able to recognize them I’m a layperson and couldn’t tell you what the official designations are.
I get the reasoning, spiders are wild creature and wild creatures live in the wild.
Since I was a small child I’ve been fascinated by spiders, insects, bugs etc. Though I have zero formal education on the matter, everywhere I’ve gone in the world I’ve searched them out. Taking care to try and not harm them, I’d temporarily collect and observe. Been doing it for 90+ years. The only piece of advice that might be of value to you is how to search them out.
If you’re looking for nocturnal species of spiders and you don’t want to spend weeks at a time with a slim chance of finding anything uncommon, you want areas that have reliable sources of light. Not simply porch lights which are usually intermittent (unless you’ve set one up and keep it on all night every night for years yourself). The key is sources of light that are consistent over long period of time, years. Truck stops for example. The buildings are usually lit very well every night all year long, the spider populations at the eves of the structures are plentiful and well fed because the lights provide a steady source of food. I noticed this back in the 50’s while traveling across country with the family. (I never liked flying)
Other commercial establishments work too. There was storage facility I used to go to regularly to collect, with permission. They are among us, if you know where to look. Railroad yards are another. I know you were saying in one of your posts that you were inspired to build some kind of catalog system of populations. Just putting that out there for your consideration. Hope it helps.
The times I’ve seen them were under barns.
zefrank has new videos? Awesome! I was sad when I binge-watched all of them a few years ago and then he stopped putting any more out.