By Joey Slowik
One day at work I came across this spider climbing out of my coffee cup. Being a cool spider guy, I calmly collected the specimen after taking a few photos. But I did ditch the coffee. Finding a spider in your coffee does spark the question, who is this spider and why was it in my cup? This led to C. canephorus. This spider is fairly large, about 1 inch in length. They are a red brown color and fairly robust spiders, related to our Callobius pictus which is found across the maritime areas of Alaska. The original description for the spider describes them as building messy sheet webs in the coffee plant Coffea canephora, which is the Robusta coffee variety. The species name might be for this relationship. However, canephorus is also Greek for a maiden carrying sacred things, which to some coffee may be.
This spider’s relationship to my coffee is probably because of the aroma the coffee gave off. Obviously, this spider was a long way from home, but the smell of the coffee must have been familiar, and she was just looking for a good place to build a web. And honestly, the opening of a cup is pretty good architecture for a sheet web. The distribution of the spider is anywhere Robusta is grown, and growers know this species as a beneficial pest control partner. But, as coffee tastes have changed over the years the Arabica variety has taken over more of the market, and thus the habitat for C. canephorus has been reduced.
Joey Slowik, IPM Technician
