This parson spider, Herpyllus ecclesiasticus, was captured while visiting the living room of the house in Troy. Photo by Dana Wilde

We’re well into spider season in Maine now, which runs from July to about mid-September. By “spider season” I just mean this is the time when most of them are the most active, so you’re apt to notice them.

Most spiders live outdoors, but some seem to prefer being indoors with people. The ones who have adapted whole lifestyles to human presence are referred to as “synanthropic,” such as house spiders, who are usually the ones who build the cobwebs on your door frames, lights and cellar ceiling. House spiders are shy and run away long before they’d ever try to bite a human. Like almost all spiders, they’re dangerous to bugs, not us.

A species of ground spider that patrols outside for food at night but likes to come inside is the parson spider, Herpyllus ecclesiasticus. They dart around with amazing speed, and unlike the house spiders, are pretty comfortable around people. We found one exploring the couch a couple of weeks ago, and identified her immediately by the white markings on her back, which are said to look like the neckties worn by ministers in the 19th century, hence the name “parson.”

A bold jumper, Phidippus audax, who was captured in a mailbox in Troy. Photo by Dana Wilde

A couple of times I’ve found parson spiders in the mailbox. At least one running crab spider turns up there every summer. Last week I captured a bold jumper, Phidippus audax. It’s a larger-than-usual jumping spider, black with tasteful white marks on its abdomen, and a reputation for living in mailboxes. This is the first mention of P. audax in Waldo County that I know about, but there’s little doubt they’ve been here all along.

Parson spiders, running crab spiders, some jumping spiders and a number of other species seem to have a preference for mailboxes. In the 1980s and ’90s, some researchers got a mailman in Mashpee, Massachusetts, to collect spiders from mailboxes on his route. After eight years of cataloging the finds, they figured out that about 39 of the roughly 500 species of spiders thought to live in the area (Mashpee is on the southern shore of Cape Cod) turn up regularly in mailboxes, mostly during late spring to early fall.

Species so regular to mailboxes that the researchers classified them as “residential” included the house spider Steatoda borealis, which built webs and egg sacs deep in the boxes; the hammock spider, Pityohyphantes costatus, a sheetweb weaver; and the green longjawed orbweaver, Tetragnatha viridis, all of which are often seen in Maine. “Phidippus audax,” the researchers reported, “is frequently encountered on the outside of the box and in retreats inside with egg sacs. One box had this species present throughout the sampling period.”

Parson spiders were found often enough in the summer to be categorized as “seasonal.”

Inevitably there were spiders that turned up only once or twice, and the researchers categorized them as “unique,” conjecturing that those spiders may have landed randomly on mailboxes while ballooning. Spiders don’t have wings, but can fly by throwing out a line of silk to catch the breeze and waft, or “balloon,” to wherever it takes them.

Among the “unique” spiders was the orbweaver Araneus diadematus. This paucity of A. diadematus seemed ironic because it is sometimes nicknamed the “mailbox spider.” Its official common name is the cross spider, from a marking on its back that looks like an ornate cross.

We have them here in Maine, but I’ve never seen one in my mailbox.

Dana Wilde lives in Troy. You can contact him at dwilde.naturalist@gmail.com. His book “A Backyard Book of Spiders in Maine” is available from North Country Press. Backyard Naturalist appears the second and fourth Thursdays each month.