Spider identification

[peterjclarke]

I'm having trouble working out which spiders they images below are of. Can anyone help?








Peter

[aeshna5]

I think the bottom two look like Metallina segmentata. I'm sure one of our arachnid experts willl confirm or otherwise soon.

[Meta menardi]

This time of year, every bush has Meta sp. in there somewhere. Very difficult to say which.

[Geoff F]

The first one looks a bit dark but I expect it is just the exposure.

At this time of the year, if they were in the open (not dark and damp habitats or somewhere else strange) then I would tend to opt for Meta segmenta as the most likely. But Meta mengei is still possible and you need a photo of the underside to have any chance of seperating the two.

M. segmenta/mengei can so variable in colour that they easily cause confusion. See my earlier question, where there is a Meta something with colouration which is totally unlike your spiders and I got absolutely lost. Particularly as it wasn't in a web and was larger than the nearby spiders who were 'dressed' in typical M. segmenta colouration.

[peterjclarke]

Thanks for the help, you have managed to narrow it down a bit and I'll bear in mind trying to get an underside shot too.