British Spiders

[StuartDH]

The british spiders Gallery now has lots of images, but there are still a few that have not been identified. If you know your british spiders or you have a good reference book to hand, it would be great if you help to ID some of the more difficult spiders.

British Spiders Gallery

If you know the ID of any of the spiders, please post a message in the comment box under the picture and we'll update the details.

Thanks

Stuart

[henrya]

Well, you can try using M J Roberts "Collins Field Guide to the Spiders of Britain and Northern Europe" but it's not usually possible to get a certain identification from a photograph (except for some of the very distinctive ones) and even with the book it's not as easy as Roberts makes out, I've been told. I'll have a look when I have time, but I don't hold out much hope.

henrya

[fbcpmike]

I've had a go at all of the spiders, but some of the photos are problably not quite up to it, either from the subject point of view or quality. Do you have any ideas for dealing with unidentified photos that in general are "unidentifiable" ?

[StuartDH]

Thanks henrya.

Mike - thanks for doing a cracking job on naming the images so far, you've certainly managed to ID a lot more than I could find in the books I've got.

I've downloaded the 'ZoomFox' extension for Firefox, which is very useful for getting in closer on some of the detail, but I'm still stumped on the rest.

I'll see if Izzy has time to run some of them through an image editor to try and remove some of the camera shake etc and then see how it goes from there.

Cheers

Stuart

[wildone]

Sorry to tell you Stuart but the same applies to fungi. Too many needing to be IDed but without expert knowledge virtually impossible to name with certainty. Who knows there may be some members who are very much into fungi and would be willing to help out.

[StuartDH]

Hi Wildone,

You're right, most of the fungi is especially difficult, if not impossible, to name. Much of it needs to be examined under a 100x microscope, so we're certainly not going to worry about naming them from pictures.

I still don't know how you've managed to name so many of the other images in the Gallery, I think I'll have to get some better reference books.

[wildone]

Hi Stuart, is it the intention to just leave unidentifiable images where they are or set up a new category for them? That would mean the ordinary unidentified would be easier to go through. At present it means a lot of scrolling through to find something you may be able to name. Your comment about books is redundant as far as I am concerned as most of what I manage to name I have either found on WAB already or use a couple of favourite web sites. Sometimes I wonder if members would only look in the Gallery of the item they are intending to post into they would be able to name, both common and latin, the image themselves. Fotunately being retired and also disabled means that I can devote more time than most to looking things up. If there is any way that I can give further help then do not hesitate to send me a PM. While I am on the subject of scrolling , is it possible to have a quick way into latest comments to images? I notice the number going up, but finding the comments is a nightmare.

[StuartDH]

Hi Wildone,

Yep, I think we'll set up an 'unidentified' category as a type of quarantine area for all types of photos that don't yet have a common and latin name. It'll certainly make our life easier in grouping together all the pics that need to be ID'd. It would also help users place new uploads in an easy-to-find group, then look for the ID's on the site or elsewhere.

You shoud be able to find the latest comments by clicking on the 'What's new' link in the Gallery menu bar. It'll show a drop-down menu that displays various timesets for new photos and new posts.

[VixS]

Please can you tell me what the TOP 10 most common British Spiders are? (common and scientific names please)

Many thanks
Vix

[pressld2]

That's a really tough question, particularly as a lot of spiders don't have an accepted common name. For example, "garden spider", "diadem spider", "cross spider", "cross orbweaver" and "garden cross orbweaver spider" all refer to Araneus diadematus.

I don't know if there is sufficiently reliable population data to construct such a list. I would guess that A. diadematus is a species that's likely to be in the top ten but that might just be because it's large and obvious. There may be tiny, difficult to find spiders that are far more numerous.

I'd be interested if any of WAB's spider experts have reliable data on this.

Dave P.