המועדפים של hawnzd

Here's some behavior I've been hoping to capture for a while! These Callobius pictus males had a quick dispute on one of the sheds in my yard. The shed is home to many C. pictus and C. severus spiders, especially the former right now.

The larger spider (left in the pictures) was crawling up along one of the corners while the smaller one was milling around higher up. The males seemed to notice one another from a distance of about 10 cm and they began moving in rather abrupt, jerky motions towards one another. When they were close enough, they stretched out their front legs out to the sides and made contact with the other spider's similarly extended legs. Then they came together and tussled for a bit, also grappling with their second pair of legs. The actual physical contact lasted only about 10 seconds. The smaller spider (right in the pictures) retreated and neither seemed any worse for wear.

The images of the dispute are in REVERSE chronological order. The individual close-ups are of the smaller spider on the right following the encounter.

I've seen similar behaviour in C. severus before, although the severus duel I photographed was lengthier with multiple scuffles:

https://bugguide.net/node/view/795954/bgimage

I’ve been assuming these little guys I see sometimes are just larval D. opalescens but I don’t actually know what all other species are in the area so want to look into a little more/hear from folks before specifying it down

Last spring, a robin spent at least a week tormenting his reflection in the windows on my rig, occasionally stopping to rest and use the side view mirror as a toilet. It looks like he or his apprentice is back at it this spring!