Black with 2 Bright Yellow Stripes???

[mjtheonlys]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone could help, I live in a coastal town in Devon and I found a curious little spider that I had not seen before by my keyhole on my front door (outside).

I would describe him as small 2 – 2.5cm, he was completely black as the night with 2 bright yellow stripes on his back going from head to back.

I moved him into the bush as I didn’t want him getting into the keyhole and possibly getting squished Anyway I was wondering if anyone might know what type of spider he was. After a brief look over the webs (hehe) I haven’t found anything closely resembling the little dude.

[MattPrince]

Welcome to Wab and the spider forums!

How many spines did it have on metatarsus IV?



Sorry... many of the British Spider species need very close examination to get to species, even an accurate clear photo may not have resulted in a positive identification.

I am intrigued though - as I can't think of a black spider with yellow stripes that might be scaling a door (the obvious dark ones with stripes are the wolf spiders, they don't tend to scale peoples front doors though).

How big was its body? Exactly which bits of its body did the yellow stripes appear on - on its carapace? Or its abdomen? How many eyes did it have oops there I go again... Eye arrangement is critical in spider identification...

Cheers,
Matt

[MattPrince]

Only thing I can think of that might fit the description - Amaurobius species (lace weavers) can appear pretty dark and have a sort of double yellow stripe on the abdomen (actually a yellow patch with a darker cardiac mark) and can often be found climbing on buildings. A big example might approach the given leg span (I assume you are talking about leg span - otherwise that's a pretty big spider!)

[John_M]

I'm wondering if the size given was meant to say 2 - 2.5 mm rather than cm.

[faz]

could it be Tibellus oblongus Grass spider but darker in colour

[mjtheonlys]

Thank you all for your responses, i googled images from the types you said and i matched it to a lace weaver, the only slight difference was in the darkness of the black and the brightness off the yellow.

Thanks again, great forum