Sluggin' Along: Need a bowl or doily? This spider can make one for you!

True, you won't actually be able to put anything in the bowl, and the silk doily probably won't go with the furniture in your house, but you will have a custom-made article, fit for catching flies and other small insects should you have a taste for them--and according to the manufacturer, who doesn't?

Seriously, though, you should check out this spider, commonly called the Bowl and Doily Weaver (Frontinella communis, also called F. pyramitela). It belongs to the subfamily Linyphiinae, the Sheetweb Spiders, and gets its name from the way it constructs its web, which resembles a bowl or doily.

**Make sure you don't confuse this genus with the similarly-looking Neriene. Don't go by body shape, but by the pattern on the abdomen. In Frontinella, the black of the underside comes up in a short stripe, then there's a white interval, and then the black stripe continues up the back. This interval appears as a white 'M' (or 'W' if the spider is upside down). In Neriene, particularly radiata, the underside is not completely black, but has some yellow markings. Also, the black basically continues from the underside up the back, with only a couple short intervals of white or yellow. In short, the markings on Frontinella are pretty straightforward, while those on Neriene are more cluttered.