Ballooning Spiders in Missouri, Usa , and New South Wales, Australia : Family and Mass Distribution S

Ballooning spiders were captured during a full growing season over agricultural habitats i n Missouri, USA, and one week in New South Wales, Australia, using sticky traps in Missouri and to w nets in Australia. More than 2,000 spiders in Missouri and more than 800 spiders in Australia were identified to family and estimates made of their live masses . Both aeronaut faunas are dominated by the family Linyphiidae, with the remaining families making up different proportions at the two sites . The vast majority of aeronauts weighed between 0 .2 and 1 .0 mg, with the mass-frequency distribution s at both sites tailing off rapidly beyond 2 .0 mg. The most massive Missouri aeronaut weighed 25 .5 mg, and the most massive Australian aeronaut 19 .1 mg . These are the first published extensive data on th e live masses of ballooning spiders from the field and this is the first taxonomic analysis of a Souther n Hemisphere aeronaut fauna.