Micro red spider.......what is it?

[AnitaZ]

Lincoln, Nebraska........May 9th, 2012......seen on vinyl siding of house

[Ungoliant]

It looks like a male dwarf weaver (subfamily Erigoninae). These spiders are not dangerously venomous.

[AnitaZ]

Thanks for the reply. It sure does appear to be in the subfamily Erigoninae with those "bulbed" eyes.

[Eric]

You're welcome, Anita! By the way, those "bulbs" are actually the spider's "pedipalps," leg-like mouthparts that in males also serve to transfer sperm to the female. Your specimen looks to be loaded and ready for action. LOL!

Eric

[AnitaZ]

Well that's interesting......Talk about learning something new everyday! So we might be seeing ALOT more of these if the little guy got lucky...LOL!

[Eric]

LOL! Up until my wedding day, April 29, it would have been doing better in that department than me! :-)

[Mandy]

This is actually an adult male in the genus Hypsosinga, which is a type of tiny "orbweaver" in the family Araneidae. The super long spines on the spider's front legs in this case are not a feature of "dwarf spiders." Though we can't really see them that well in the image, the eyes and palps are also different. He's most likely Hypsosinga rubens, which usually has an orange abdomen that matches their carapace, but some have a dark brown or black abdomen (depends on how quickly they matured as to what color it ends up).

There are indeed some "dwarf spiders" (Erigoninae) that do have similar coloration, though (genus Hypselistes, for example). Keeps us on our toes, I guess.