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Resting in a large orb web strung among vegetation in the forest understory, at the edge of the trail. Web was at about eye level, probably 1.6 or 1.8 meters above the ground. A medium sized spider with remarkably bright red femurs and reddish abdomen.

Araneidae family, the Cucumber spider, Araniella Cucurbitina, is easy to identify. Not only because of its green and yellow abdomen with black dots, it also have a red spot, far back above the spinners.

Fine hairs of leg four are diagnostic for Leucauge genus.
Leucauge granulata
Identified as Leucauge on Bowerbird by Ken Walker: "ID by Robert Whyte who commented: "possibly decorata or granulata"."

Arachnid Copulation Extravaganza!

One of the most remarkable things I have seen through my lens in a while. I know nothing at all about spiders, butI think this must be a species of vlei spider? Leucauge levanderi? I assume that the spiders are engaging in "copulatory behaviour", but please correct me if I am wrong. I have added cropped images to demonstrate the fluids that were being discharged from the abdomen (of the female?). I would love to know what is actually going on here!

I think that presence of orange crescent should rule out L. argyra (right?), and per BugGuide L. venusta doesn't get as far south as Florida. That said, I'm a bit confused by some recent DNA work on L. venusta. Thanks for correction if needed.

I often see its common name as "Mabel orchard spider" (and sometimes "Mabel's orchard spider") as if Mabel was the person who described it. I don't think that's the case but not positive. I'm assuming mabel is just derived from obsolete (?) Leucauge mabelae. "Mabel" means beautiful.

VOUCHER # 73198

DATE: 20 NOV 2020

STATE: WA

COUNTY: KITSAP

FORAY ID: South Sound Fungal Diversity Project.

SITE NAME: Newberry Hill Heritage Park, near Silverdale

iNat #: 69187289

NEARBY FLORA:

Conifer: Douglas Fir, Hemlock.
Deciduous: Vine Maple, Red Huckleberry.
Evergreen: Sword Fern, Blue/Black Huckleberry.

SUBSTRATE: Twigs, Dense Humus Soil, Needle Duff, Moss.

HABIT: Single.

LIGHT EXPOSURE: Shade (80% of day)to Partial Shade

MOISTURE: Wet

AMBIENT TEMP: 45 Degrees F

SOIL TEMP: 40 Degrees F

ECOSYSTEM: 2nd-Growth Forest.

ELEVATION: 460 Ft/140 Meters

LAY OF THE LAND: 40-degree Slope

REFERENCES:

Mushroom Matchmaker App (I. Gibson, M. Beug, D. Parker, D. Miller, N. Siegel, B. Kendrick);
Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast (Siegel & Schwarz), pg 38;
Pictorial Key to Pacific NW Mushrooms (Danny Miller)
Mushroom Expert Website (Michael Kuo)

DETAILED PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION, from Mushroom Matchmaker app:

LATIN NAME(S)Mushroom Matchmaker App (I. Gibson, M. Beug, D. Parker, D. Miller, N. Siegel, B. Kendrick); Amanita augusta Bojantchev & R.M. Davis North American Fungi 8(5):2. 2013; Amanita franchetii sensu auct. mult. (misapplied name); Amanita aspera sensu auct. mult. (misapplied name)

ENGLISH NAME(S): yellow-veiled Amanita, western yellow-veil

NOTES: The most distinctive features are the powdery yellow universal veil and yellow partial veil, which forms yellowish to grayish white warts on cap and a yellow or partly yellow ring. This species has been known under the misapplied name Amanita franchetii. It is common in the Pacific Northwest.

RANGE: Collections were examined from CA, OR, WA, and AK (Bojantchev). It is reported from ID by Andrew Parker, pers. comm., and is frequent on foray lists from BC (in both cases as Amanita franchetii). Kroeger(5) reported it from Haida Gwaii in BC.

CAP: 3-15cm across, hemispheric to convex becoming flat-convex to flat-concave, "margin incurved to straight"; dark brown to brown to yellow-brown, sometimes yellow to grayish yellow when old, "typically paler towards the margin"; "occasionally ribbed striate near the margin", over the cap surface "the universal veil forming rows of concentric warts (finer towards the edge)", yellow but fading to grayish white when old, "easily removable, often partially or completely washed out or rubbed away", leaving cap partially or fully bald, (Bojantchev), 4.5-12(15)cm across, nearly round to convex then flat; dark brown to grayish brown, yellow-brown, or bright yellow; covered with yellow, mealy or powdery warts that become flattened and grayish to dingy buff when old or occasionally disappear, margin non-striate or faintly striate, (Arora), straw-colored to yellowy brown or grayish brown, dotted with yellowish patches of volval remains; smooth, sticky when wet, then becoming dry, (Phillips), 4-12(15)cm across, nearly spherical to convex, then flat; dark brown to gray-brown, or light brown, margin often yellow at very edge; viscid when moist, covered with mealy, yellow warts that become flattened and grayish when old; margin not usually striate, (Lindgren)

FLESH: white to pale yellow, (Bojantchev), soft; white or tinged yellow, (Arora), sometimes bruising red-brown around insect holes at stem base, (Phillips)

GILLS: "narrowly attached to free", 0.9-2cm broad, crowded; "white to yellowish near the cap margin", (Bojantchev), adnate to adnexed or free, close; white or creamy yellow, (Arora), free or slightly adnexed, close, broad; whitish or yellow-tinged, (Phillips)

STEM: 4-15cm x 1-3cm, cylindric to widening downwards, "often with a distinct bulb" (also "prominent bulb in most basidiomata"), stem stuffed; yellow when young, often fading to whitish when old, typically yellowish above the ring; "surface above the bulb forming scaly girdles (finer towards the annulus) with yellow apices", often fading to bald when old, above the ring "distinctly longitudinally striate", (Bojantchev), 5-15(20)cm x 0.7-2.5cm, equal or widening downward, the base often enlarged; "white to pale yellow above the ring, white to yellow, buff, or grayish-tinged below", base often with orangish, reddish or brown stains inside or outside, (Arora), widening slightly downward, stuffed; white; smooth or slightly woolly, (Phillips), fibrillose to scaly toward base, smooth when old, (Lindgren), VOLVA powdery, friable universal veil forms "a scaly volva (scaly zones and / or yellow to grayish-yellow powdery scales)" at base of stem, but volva easily obliterated, (Arora), "mealy pieces of yellow tissue may form rings at the base or be left in the soil", (Lindgren), volva in the form of concentric rings of tissue on base, "rarely with a free collar at top of bulb", (Goetz, D.)

VEIL: universal veil yellow, forming rows of concentric warts on cap, stem base "girdled with veil remnants, distinctly rufescent in age"; ring "superior, membranous, pendant, upper surface distinctly striate, thinning, but rarely collapsing with age, typically fimbriate, pale yellow to yellow on both sides", developing darker yellow brown zones when old, (Bojantchev), forming membranous, superior, skirt-like ring that is white to pale yellow on upper surface, bright yellow to grayish yellow on underside, (Arora), ring with faint striations on upper surface (Goetz, D.), ring usually with felty gray to yellow patches on the edge, (Ammirati)

ODOR: mild (Bojantchev), faint, not distinctive (Phillips)

TASTE: mild (Bojantchev), not distinct (Lindgren)

EDIBILITY: avoid (Arora)

HABITAT: "common in the mixed coastal woods of California, the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska", primary fruiting season is fall, but may fruit in late summer and fall in the Pacific Northwest and in winter and spring in California; tending to fruit in small numbers, typically 1-3 fruitbodies, rarely more, (Bojantchev), single to scattered or in small groups under both hardwoods and conifers, (Arora), on ground under conifers, in Pacific Northwest fruiting in September to October, (Lincoff), late summer to fall (Buczacki), summer, fall

SPORE DEPOSIT: white (Bojantchev, Arora)

MICROSCOPIC spores (7.8)8.5-9.3(11.2) x (5.2)6.0-6.8(7.8) microns, broadly elliptic to elliptic, "slight to distinctly inequilateral in 30-40% of the cases, with a prominent lateral apiculus", amyloid, colorless; basidia 4-spored, 35-62 x 8-12 microns, clavate; marginal cells on gills 10-33 x 7-21 microns, "subglobose to sphaeropedunculate"; clamp connections not observed, (Bojantchev), spores 8-12 x 6-8 microns, elliptic, smooth, amyloid (Arora), spores 7-10 x 5.5-7 microns, broadly elliptic, smooth, amyloid; basidia 4-spored; pleurocystidia not differentiated, cheilocystidia scattered to abundant, 38-48 x 9-15 microns, subcapitate, thin-walled and readily collapsing; gill trama divergent from a central strand, the cells short and broad, inamyloid; cap trama floccose beneath thin gelatinous pellicle, inamyloid, (Smith(48))

NAME ORIGIN: means "majestic" or "venerable" (Bojantchev)

SIMILAR: Amanita augusta is like browner forms of Amanita 'pantherina' but ring and warts on cap are not white, and volva is different.

SOURCES: Bojantchev(5), Arora(1) (as A. aspera), Lindgren(1) (as Amanita franchetii), Smith(48) (as Amanita asper), Trudell(4)* (as Amanita franchetii), NYBG(1) (as A. aspera), Phillips(1)* (as Amanita franchetii), Miller(14)* (as Amanita franchetii), Lincoff(2)* (as A. aspera), Ammirati(1)* (as A. aspera), Kibby(1)* (as Amanita franchetii), Goetz, D.(1) (as Amanita franchetii), AroraPocket* (as Amanita franchetii), O'Dell(1) (as Amanita franchetii), Kroeger(5), Desjardin(6), Siegel(2)*

FAMILY: Amanitaceae of Order Agaricales