The Corinnidae family of spiders wishes you a very merry Christmas. Happy holidays to you, whatever holiday you might celebrate.

The Corinnids are one of my favorite families of spiders. I like to call them Quantum Spiders because they are wicked fast. I can't seem to watch members of the Castianeira genus move directly from point A to point B. They move around by quantum jumps. If I'm lucky to get one in a jar, all I see is the spider magically appear at different places within the jar, rapid-fire, like electrons that only exist in a wave state between moments of observation.

Corinnids are considered ant-mimics, but I find myself confusing them with wasps. Castianeira amoena actually mimics a Mutillid wasp, also called the Velvent Ant (how's that for confusing?). Castianeira descripta has the common name Red-Spotted Ant Mimic because on some individuals the red spots on the abdomen are distinct. The way C. descripta twitches its translucent front legs reminds me of a wasp twitching its wings. I found the juvenile Castianeira longipalp in the middle of a colony of red and black ants, when I lifted a board. This spider waves its front legs as if they were antennae. (Spiders don't have antennae, but ants do.) I raised it to adulthood to find out what it was. I've included a photo of the adult C. longipalpa above as well.

I have much to say about the Trachelas spider as well, but I'll save that for later. I don't know the species of the one depicted above, as I haven't keyed it out under the scope yet. You'll find some fun information about this spider at Shelly Cox's MObugs blog: The Ground Sac Spider.