Spider with interesting pedipalps

Bruce Williams · #1 (**permalink**) 18-02-2010, 06:09 PM

Stony Stratford, Bucks. 17th February 2010.

I'm guessing a male from the rather exotic pedipalps?

Help with id and general comments appreciated:

Bruce

frits_b · #2 (**permalink**) 18-02-2010, 08:03 PM

Nice picture. My guess would be Amaurobius, because of the general form of the palps, and the look of the carapace.

Action_Man · #3 (**permalink**) 18-02-2010, 08:15 PM

Its pretty weird to find one of these at this time of the year, where did you find it ?, a bit more detail, other than Stoney Stratford

......

frits_b · #4 (**permalink**) 18-02-2010, 08:30 PM

According to Roberts, A. ferox males are mature in autumn and spring (maybe this is an early one?), and "male palpal organs are conspicuously white, even to the naked eye". Do you know its size? A. ferox are bigger than fenestralis and similis.
On the other hand, I could be totally wrong about the genus

Bruce Williams · #5 (**permalink**) 18-02-2010, 08:58 PM

Thanks guys. I'll get back to you with the requested info tomorrow.

Bruce

col188 · #6 (**permalink**) 19-02-2010, 12:37 PM

House Spider - Amaurobius similis - Wildlife Photography

Looks very similar to this one photographed last year. As far as I can remember, the claw on the palps decided the ID.

Col

Bruce Williams · #7 (**permalink**) 19-02-2010, 04:03 PM

Thanks for the link Col - it certainly looks very much like it

.

Anyway, here's the extra info:

Size: ~7.5mm (calculated using subject to sensor).

The spider was on the wall of a spacious (corrugated metal lined) tunnel that runs SW-NE under the A5 dual carriageway . There are 5 of these tunnels running next to one another and the walls are absolutely covered in spider webs. The tunnels separate areas of shrub and grassland with a large pond on the SW side and the Great Ouse is maybe 100m from the NW entrances to the tunnels. The spider in the posted pic was about 8-9m inside the NW entrance to the tunnel.

Altogether I have seen 3 of these spiders in the last three days. There was another, slightly smaller individual nearer the entrance, about 6 or 7 meters away from the one shown in this post (same day and time) - I got a few shots of him but he was not quite so nicely exposed. This afternoon I saw another one in a different tunnel and managed to get a few face-on shots.

Hope that helps.

Bruce