Identification for spider and egg sac?

Jellyfish · #1 (**permalink**) 05-07-2010, 10:20 PM

Hi

Please can anyone help to identify this poor spider who made her web and egg sac in a very dank and dirty corner of a ground floor bathroom. She had several legs missing. She was a bit less than 2 cm, including the legs, and although the photo makes her look light brown, to the eye she looked to have a much darker head, legs and thorax and a very light yellow-gray abdomen.

I noticed her making her low, untidy web last Wednesday evening. On Thursday morning she was very energetically adding to the web. When I bent over the web I could actually hear little crackling noises as she span. When I checked later she had, in the centre of the web, woven a small, extremely dense disc. 20 mins later I had another look and the spider was sitting on the white disc and underneath her was a pale yellow, pearlescent 'droplet' – it looked like she was sitting on a small fried egg. Very shortly after that she began to curl the edges of the disc up into a round shape, which is when I took this photo. Once it was all wrapped up and the eggs enclosed, she rested with the sac underneath her.

Now I don't know whether this was cruel, but at this point I panicked a bit at the thought of dozens of spiderlings hatching in my house, and also I really needed to clean up that corner and sort out the rotten skirting, so I had my friend move her to the end of the garden, behind the shed.

Does anyone know what kind of a spider she is? I've looked on a few UK spider ID websites but she doesn't look quite like anything there.

Thanks (and I really hope these pics work; I'm not very good at this).

[url=http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/archive/showphoto.php?

frits_b · #2 (**permalink**) 06-07-2010, 06:24 AM

Hi,

Something seems to be wrong with the attached pictures. I can't view them full-size.
Oh wait a minute, I can (but not by clicking the thumbnails in your post).

Judging by its general appearance and eye arrangement, it must be one of the Gnaphosidae family. Which genus/species, I couldn't say; I don't have a lot of experience with Gnaphosids.

faz · #3 (**permalink**) 06-07-2010, 01:20 PM

im proberley wrong but looks like a mouse spider to me

im here waiting to told im wrong lol

frits_b · #4 (**permalink**) 06-07-2010, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by faz

im proberley wrong but looks like a mouse spider to me

im here waiting to told im wrong lol

You're entirely right. Gnaphosid = 'mouse spider'

faz · #5 (**permalink**) 06-07-2010, 06:45 PM

thanks FB made my day

Jellyfish · #6 (**permalink**) 06-07-2010, 07:17 PM

Thank you! I've googled Gnaphosids and that looks like my spider alright. Maybe her abdomen looked a paler yellow when I first spotted her because she was full of eggs? I did look at her spinnerets when she was weaving, and they were very prominent.

Is it common for spiders to lose legs like this? I'm afraid I might have been responsible for her injuries as I ripped out loads of weeds from the garden the day before she appeared inside the house. Might have inadvertently roughed her up a bit. Do you think she'll be OK?