Unidentified spider - Bucks.

[Bruce Williams]

Stony Stratford on wall of tunnel under the A5.

Help with identification appreciated.



Bruce

[Meta menardi]

Looks very like a Tegenaria to me.

[No.9 Spider]

Yes, it's a species of Tegenaria undoubtedly (and nice photo's too!).



No.9 Spider

[Bruce Williams]

Thank you both for your help on this one. Having seen pics of the various Tegenaria species I can see that you are both spot-on.

As to species, well I would estimate this individual as approx. 8-10mm excluding legs so I guess size would eliminate T. gigantea, T. silvestris and T. campestris (am I right?). That would appear to leave T. parietina, T. agrestis, T. domestica and T. duellica as possibles (maybe others?).

Bruce

[Venger]

T.gigantea/ T.duellica are the same thing, and T.campestris isn't in the UK.
Sadly size doesn't really help separate species, especially when it's an 'eye view' (no ruler)
This one is female and Tegenaria sp is probably the best you're going to get without studying the epigyne under a microscope (and then some).
It could also be T.saeva or T.atrica or a hybrid!, unlikely to be T.domestica.

[No.9 Spider]

Tegenaria species are generally a can of worms when it comes to I.D.
For example, at present I believe T. duellica is now T. gigantea and T. larva now T. atrica.
You can forget T. parietina as a candidate, as they are particularly long legged (I've seen preserved specimens in Manchester Museum with leg spans of over 5 inches!).
Our current species comprise:
T. gigantea
T. saeva
T. atrica
T. parietina
T. ferruginea
T. agrestis
T. domestica
T. silvestris
T. picta

Of these, T. ferruginea has been recorded from one location and T. atrica is uncommon though widespread in the rest of Europe.
Likely candidates for me would be T. gigantea, T. saeva or T. domestica. But it is of course a guessing game, so Tegenaria species will do for me!


No.9 Spider

[Bruce Williams]

Thank you both for your help and information .

Venger - Having realised how inaccurate my "eye-view" estimating can be from mistakes in an earlier posting, I now base my estimates on the relative size of the subject to the sensor frame. I generally try and get as large an image as possible to maximise detail so (apart from large subjects) am usually within 90% of max subject size on sensor.

In this instance I used my little Canon A50 which covers an area of 40x30mm with my standard zoom setting at closest focus. I don't go as far as actually overlaying the image in Photoshop (as you see below) but in my mind I see something like:



Thanks for the species list No9.

I'll take your advice and go with Tegenaria sp. and add a link to this thread.

Bruce