Spider
Everybody give a warm welcome to Brian Lyles, who submitted this image of a spider. He also has this to say:
As I was rushing around tonight, getting ready for my trip to Mississippi, I
stopped in mid-rush because I saw something scurry off under my mother’s
desk. With a little coaxing, I got this little guy to show his face, and
got several pictures of him. Unfortunately, the light wasn’t the best and my
camera isn’t the best for such small objects, but I did get one decent
shot. I have no idea what kind of spider it is, I’m the “ooooh that’s cool
looking!” kind of person, not the “thats a so-and-so spider” kind of
person. But anyway, this guy (girl?) has a half inch long body and with
his/her legs (s)he’s almost an inch long. Hope you like the pic, and good
luck with the ID.
Now, I’ve got food to make, clothes to pack, and sleep to get, and a half
hour less, so I’m gonna go back to that.
It’s a great shot, Brian! Thanks for stopping the packing preparations to take a photo.
As for ID… any takers? The eyes look small so I’m thinking not a wolf or jumping spider. The general body shape is consistent with funnel-web weavers, but the coloration is different from any I’ve ever seen. Note that I have only seen two or three species of FWW, all of them indigenous to the Utah desert, and there are dozens if not hundreds of other species. So on a general theory I’d suspect Family Agelinidae or similar.
Thanks, and welcome, Brian!
Slowly getting the site back onto an even keel. It's nice to get back into the old posting rhythm.
Brian L. said,
June 20, 2008 @ 10:53 am
Oh, I forgot to mention, I live in Michigan, if that helps at all with the ID. This guy probably found his way indoors when we had a couple days that were unusually cold for June.
Beth said,
June 20, 2008 @ 10:58 am
I’d file this under the classification YTAS: Yup, that’s a spider!
If that’s a less-than-stellar photo for you, Brian, I can’t wait to see what your GOOD photos are like!
JFargo said,
June 20, 2008 @ 5:49 pm
After about an hour of looking through bug guide, and a few other places, I can tell you with a certainty that I have absolutely no clue what kind of spider that is.
But I, an arachnaphobe, spent an hour looking at spiders just to find that out.
Awesome photo. An inch long? Wow. Big spider, in my neck of the woods.
Plaid Phantom said,
June 20, 2008 @ 8:40 pm
At first glance the markings make me think Black Widow, but WIkipedia argues I might be mistaking genus Steatoda.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_black_widow
tceisele said,
June 21, 2008 @ 4:01 am
Do you have a picture from the top or side, so that you can see whether the spinnerettes project out from the rear of the abdomen? If it has projecting spinnerettes, like this one does, then that would tend to confirm that it is one of the Agelenidae.
Brian L. said,
June 21, 2008 @ 9:06 pm
I don’t, unfortunately. I was having some trouble getting it focused with so little light (the light in the picture is flash) and this was the only picture with any detail at all. I don’t recall seeing projecting spinnerettes as large as in that picture you linked, but a) I wasn’t concentrating on that, and b) my memory is often mediocre at best. There may have been smaller ones, but I don’t think so.