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Maryland Biodiversity Project is cataloging all the living things of Maryland. Visit www.marylandbiodiversity.com.
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We promote science, education, and conservation by helping to build a vibrant Maryland nature study community. Maryland Biodiversity Project (MBP) is cataloging all the living things of Maryland. Our goal is to promote education and conservation by helping to build a vibrant general nature study community. The project was started in June 2012 by Bill Hubick and Jim Brighton.

10/31/2026

Happy Halloween! For our final spooky species spotlight, we present the Marbled Orbweaver. Dare I say, the most on theme in our series so far, because their alternate names of Halloween or Pumpkin Spider. Their striped legs and intricate marbled abdomens are giving spooky season, which October is a great time to spot them. Females deposit their egg sacs around this time of year after a late summer season of web making. These orbweavers build large webs in tall grasses and wooded areas but hide in smaller web retreats, usually a leaf they curl with their silk.

The size and shape of their abdomen varies greatly and can give you some clues to the s*x and life stage of the spider. Females are easy to identify with their round pumpkin-shaped rear, but when it's a deep orange, she's ready to lay her eggs. Males have a much thinner and egg shaped abdomen and since they don't form webs, are much rarely seen.

The variation in color and marbling, from bright yellows, accentuating blacks, and golden oranges is amazing to see from spider to spider, and you can see 616 pictures of different Halloween Spiders on our database!

Check it out here, at the Maryland Biodiversity Project:
https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/taxon/6470

Thanks for joining us on our creepy critter crawl this week!
Paleena

Marbled Orbweaver in Wicomico Co., Maryland (10/31/2021). (c) Joe Hastings, some rights reserved (CC BY)

10/30/2026

Second to last day of our series of spooky species and we're sure to not leave out an aquatic atrocity! Meet the Northern Stargazer (Astroscopus guttatus), a Maryland species that lives off the Atlantic coast but can be found from New York to North Carolina. If you've had the horror of seeing one, it may have been in bottom-trawling bycatch or buried in the sand with that shocking face looking back at you. These creatures are especially terrible at swimming but extremely specialized to bury themselves in sand at the ocean floor, sometimes at water depths of 120 feet! Their eyes (reminding me of cheap Spirit Halloween colored contacts) aim upwards, a trait that explains its namesake and categorizes other types of fishes like this in the Uranoscopidae family. Between the rough Latin and Ancient Greek translations, Astroscopus means 'to look at stars' or 'astronomer', and guttatus means 'speckled'. Those eyes aren't just for looks though, they're electrified! An odd adaptation that separates this genus from others is the 200 layers of electric tissue in their orbitae, or eye socket. This may assist its method of hunting, waiting just at the surface of the sand to stun passing prey, like small fish and crustaceans, sucking them up in their permanently frowny mouths. It may also be used to deter other predators, but its venomous pectoral fins assist in defense as well! These appalling aquatic creatures have so many more fascinating traits that you can explore yourself, starting at our website. After researching them, they may fall into my 'so ugly, it's cute' category of favorite critters.

Happy almost Halloween!
Paleena

Learn more at the Maryland Biodiversity Project:
https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/taxon/5372

Top: Greenbush, VA (10/7/13). Permission and media by dwcliu via iNaturalist, all rights reserved.
Left bottom: Worcester Co., Maryland (8/11/2023). (c) mcbpliz, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC).
Right bottom: caught in Worcester Co., Maryland (10/16/2015). Media by Nick Denny.

10/29/2026

We're getting closer to Halloween so for day five, we're checking off a peculiar plant. The name itself already sounds like an ingredient you may find in a witch's spell book! Hu**ed Bladderwort is the creepy CARNIVOROUS critter (plant, but let me have this alliteration) and it is one of nineteen in Maryland. Many of those species are bladderworts, which do their frightening feeding under the surface, with traps lined along their stolons, or runners, that form mats in shallow water. These bladders have small appendages that trigger the trap when something small drifts by, like algae, zooplankton, or very small crustaceans. An extremely quick reaction takes place, where the trap snaps open, vacuums in the prey and surrounding water, then begins digesting the catch to gain essential nitrogen and phosphorus. This can take less than a second, definitely ruining a copepod's day!

Look for them over the summer months in ponds, marshes, swamps, and other shallow bodies of water. Take a look at our quad maps to find some general places to look, or explore counties and quads without Hu**ed Bladderwort records to fill in some of the database!

Explore at the Maryland Biodiversity Project's website:
https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/taxon/1571

Top:
Hu**ed Bladderwort in Worcester Co., Maryland (7/19/2021). (c) Wayne Longbottom, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC).
Bottom:
Hu**ed Bladderwort in Anne Arundel Co., Maryland (6/23/2011). (c) Bill Harms, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC).

10/29/2026

Yearning for bird count updates in between our week of spooky species? Get your fix with this blog post from Turkey Point, written wonderfully by Lucas! Thanks to the alternate counters, Dan Small and Frode Jacobsen, that helped out this week as well.

Read the post here and more at MBP's blog:
https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/blog/?p=2231

Pine Siskin by Lucas Pittman

10/28/2026

Look it, LOOK IT! It's freakin' bats! Day 4 of creepy critters but instead of just one, we're highlighting the whole order of Chiroptera in Maryland! There are 11 species of bats that have sightings in the state, & our database has media for 10 of them (excluding the Seminole bat). For our Tri-colored Bat taxon page, we even have audio recordings & spectrograms of their calls.

Eight of these bats are some combination of globally & state rare or vulnerable, & state or federally endangered. Many factors threaten their survival, like habitat loss, food chain disruptions, & disease. This group can be split by where they like to dwell, either in trees or caves. Ensuring ample habitat, like leaving hollow trees & loose bark in forested areas or building a bat box for your property is vital for tree bats. Cave bats are vulnerable to White Nose Syndrome, caused by Pseudogymnoascus destructans, or Pd. This causes an infected bat preparing for hibernation to become overactive & deplete their fat reserves, leading them to starve over the winter & spread the fungus to others in the colony. An outbreak of Pd has been know to cause a 100% decline of a local population. If exploring caves in the area, avoid them from September to May and take the proper protocol for decontaminating your clothes to prevent further spread of Pd (www.whitenosesyndrome.org).

Bats in your area are friends, not foe. Their main diet consists of insects, many of them pests to you & your garden. Do what you can to support their survival! Build bat boxes, plant native, & share that bats are an important strengthener of a biodiverse ecosystem.

Find the taxon pages and more information about each of these species at MBP:
https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/taxon/25854

Photo Credits:
Little Brown Myotis by James M. Stuart
Indiana Bat by USFWS Headquarters
Eastern Small-footed Bat by Corey Raimond
Northern Myotis by USFWS Headquarters
Silver-haired Bat in Montgomery Co., Maryland (4/7/2024) by Dave Roberts
Big Brown Bat by Robby Deans
Eastern Red Bat in Baltimore Co., Maryland (12/21/2018) by Mark Johnson
Hoary Bat by James N. Stuart
Evening Bat by David Arbour
Tri-colored Bat by Andrew Hoffman

10/27/2026

Day three and we're switching gears to a frightening fungus! This is Dead Man's Fingers, or Xylaria polymorpha. They grow these freaky fruiting bodies on rotting, decaying wood or stumps. Usually they're brown, and look like a frostbitten finger reaching out of a log! But in the spring, they get even eerier when they develop their spores. Those skeleton spires are the fungus covered in their conidia, which enables them to reproduce as*xually. These would certainly spook anyone on a walk in the woods!

See more about Dead Man's Fingers at the MBP website:
https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/taxon/11730

Dead Man's Fingers in Baltimore Co., Maryland (6/4/2018). (c) richard crook, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC).

10/27/2026

In between our spooky species posts, the bird count is still in full swing! Read this update from Ben at Dans Rock on the MBP blog, along with all the other updates from there and Turkey Point. After Halloween, come back to see conversations with Ben during a count and see ones with Lucas at Turkey Point on the feed now!

Read the blog post here:
https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/blog/?p=2225

10/26/2026

Day two of MBP's week of creepy critters! Today we're showcasing the Florida Predatory Stink Bug, but don't let the name fool you. These insects have a range at its most northern that extends into Maryland.

Their method of feeding is unique, as both adult and nymph stink bugs will team up to take down prey much larger than them, called aggregate behavior. They use their piercing proboscides to inject a toxin that immobilizes their prey. To consume their prey, the insects use a process called extra-oral digestion, where the insides of their victim becomes liquidized by digestive enzymes. If times are hard, these carnivores are known to cannibalize as well!

Regardless of their chilling killing tactics, these native stink bugs are a great visitor to have in your garden. They attack pest insects, and some of our MBP media records show them feeding on Spotted Lantern Flies!

Check out those pictures and see more about the FL Predatory Stink Bug at the Maryland Biodiversity Project website:
https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/taxon/9665

Florida Predatory Stink Bugs preying on Magicicada in Montgomery Co., Maryland (6/10/2021). (c) maragay, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC).

10/25/2026

Day one of some creepy critters leading up to Halloween! Starting off with the Black Witch Moth, which has some interesting folklore. In many Central and South American cultures, seeing a Black Witch is a terrible omen. It is thought that if one enters your household, either bad luck will follow you or a death is imminent. Others believe that it may be a lost soul of someone recently deceased, like in Jamaica.

These moths reside in the southern US to South America, but make long migratory flights in the spring and summer. They have been recorded in the majority of US states and into Canadian provinces such as Newfoundland and Labrador.

Check out more spooky (and informational) facts on the MBP website:
https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/taxon/7418

Black Witch Moth in St. Mary's Co., Maryland (8/10/2022). (c) jtylerbell, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC).

10/24/2026

A great morning out at Dans Rock with Ben today! Clear skies, lots of raptors and pine siskins, and a good yap session. After our week of spooky species, I'll post some videos of our chat up at the Rock.

Go visit our counters! They've got cool things to share.

-Paleena

Address

PO Box 1316
Easton, MD
21601

Website

https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/

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