Jumping spider with distinctively spotted palps

[Bruce Williams]

Stockgrove Country Park, Beds. On old wooden fence.

Notice the white pedipalps with two black dots on each.As far as I know I've not seen this species before.

Help with identification appreciated.



Bruce

[aeshna5]

Looks like a Marpissa sp.

[Bruce Williams]

Thanks for the suggestion Aeshna .

Bruce

[Bruce Williams]

I have had three suggested id's from from some very helpful members of britishspiders.org - all were suggested as "possibles" with the usual comment about the importance of the epigyne in identifying spider species. They are:

1. Pseudophrys lanigera (Ophrys lanigera) - but this is confined to houses apparently
2. Bianor aurocinctus
3. Marpissa nivoyi

So far no one (including me) has seen another jumping spider image showing the black dots on the white pedipalps. Here's a close-up showing the pedipalps:



Bruce

[Action_Man]

Any top-down shots Bruce ?.

As for Pseudophrys lanigera, i always find them on the outside of my house, never inside, sometimes they creep in when the doors open though ...

[Action_Man]

I think is one i caught last year, and they max out at 4mms ...

[Jason Green]

Nice shots, Gordon. Are these common?

[Action_Man]

I think they are quite common yes, there are quite a few from spring until about now, then they seem to suddenly disappear, in saying that, i saw one today which was around 1.5mms ...

[Venger]

Don't get obsessed by one area - there's a lot of variation in many species.
Do you have any more shots of this on Bruce?

[Bruce Williams]

Gordon - Very nice images - thanks for posting them . Unfortunately I only shot one other viewpoint (side-on) however it was a single snatched shot and is very poor quality. It did enable me to get a fairly accurate measurement of size at 4.5mm.

Des - point taken . Only one other shot as mentioned above.

Bruce