Agriculture and Natural Resources Program

Local entomologist Dr. Aubrey Moore says the theory is mass amount of spiders is caused by the brown tree snakes picking off the birds. He told KUAM News ...

http://www.kuam.com/story/19755681/2012/10/06/guam-has-more-spiders-than-all-of-cnmi

This antmimicking spider was dropped of at my office for identification. An interesting feature of his mimick is the extremely reflective patch of white hair on the cephalothorax which makes the spider look like it has a "neck".

Specimen Label

AM20120927.001
Agat Post Office, Guam
coll. Amelia Uhria 27 SEP 2012

Aubrey Moore is interviewed by Louella Losinio concerning the recent spider article published by Haldre Rogers, Ross Miller at al.

See attachment.

Label Data

4c930eafbaebf
Guam
coll. Frank San Agustin 15-SEP-2010

ARANEIDAE
Neoscona theisi
det. A. Moore 17-SEP-2010

Notes

The type locality for this species is Guam. However, it is widespread throughout the Pacific and beyond.

Therediidae

Dan Vice, USDA-APHIS Wildlife Services, has kindly forwarded me a spider alert, put out by U. S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), following interception of spiders in a shipment of granite stone arriving at Hilo from China. 

The CBP alert states:

"On July 28, 2010 CBP agriculture specialists were examining a container of granite stone from China, destined for Hawaii Zip code 96740, and encountered a sizable spider infestation. Since spiders are not a quarantine pest regulated by PPQ, specimens were submitted to the Hawaii Department of Agriculture."

"They were identified as belonging to the Theridiidae family - a highly venomous Widow family not known to occur in the Hawaiian Islands and hence, a state actionable pest."

The container and cargo were fumigated under supervision of Hawaii Department of Agriculture."

Araneus ventricosus

Larinioides cornutus

A ship delivering housing units and accessories from South Korea for a work force village expected to house up to 18,000 temporary workers was turned away from Guam's seaport in Apra Harbor last week when it was discovered that the ship and its cargo was infested with thousands of spiders.  The spider infested cargo was being delivered to support a massive military buildup on Guam.  It is predicted that the amount of cargo arriving at Guam's ports will exceed six time the current levels.  A corresponding increase in arrival of invasive species on Guam is identified as an unintended consequence in the draft environmental impact statement for the buildup (http://www.guambuildupeis.us/).