Tegenaria domestica?

[sebastianbawn]

Hi another spider for ID. found in the yard at work, around mudded, rocky area. Found with female! fangs-spinners 10-15mm. Now wondering if it is actually tegenaria duellica? (new name for tegenaria gigantea). Have included palp pic if that makes any difference. Found in Bristol

[Venger]

Not really Seb - what we really need are more like this

[sebastianbawn]

Damn. It really is hardwork getting ID's! well I guess I have ALOT to learn. Thanks venger

[sebastianbawn]

Sorry if I am testimg anyones patience, just had a thought. Is it able to ID this spider from the (excuse the lack of professional language) shape of the spike on its lower palp (just before the actual bulbous part of the palp). If you view the close-up pic you will see what I mean lol

[Venger]

To be honest, no not really!

Tegenaria are very tricky to ID - you really need to see them under a micrscope. It doesn't help that certain species interbreed in certain areas of the UK, not always but it does happen.

[sebastianbawn]

Worth a try lol. well in future my pics will be very magnified, now with your help I know what im looking for, i might not be such a pain in the future

[Venger]

Not a pain at all - happy to help.

If it's possible, what we really need:

Top down shot
an underneath shot (especially of the epigyne if it's a female)
Palps from the side, showing the inside, if you can (if its male)
An head shot - not uber specific but nice.

As you get to know more about spiders you'll learn that different areas offer more help on certain species than on others - for instance on many Linyphiidae sp, shots of the front legs and the amount of spines and trichobothrium (straight hairs) are really helpful, on Tetragnatha sp the sternum is very helpful.

[sebastianbawn]

I have recently bought a Collins Field guide to spiders of Britain and Northern Europe. It gets into detail with line drawings of each spiders epigyne and palps, along with some fancy coloured plates. It seems that some species can be successfully identified with the naked eye, but so many are more in depth. My future postings will be a lot more detailed. Do you have any tips on photographing spiders palps up close. I use a 10.2 megapixel camera so I can enlarge to a good degree, but my macro filters dont seem to give that great a picture.