Common Spiders

I found these two today and fortunately were easy of identify:

Nursery Web Spider

Common Crab Spider

Drassodes lapidosus

A bright sunny day today a condition that is said to bring this species of spider into the open. This one is a male and can be told from the similar Drassodes cupreus by the longer thinner palps.

Drassodes lapidosus

Dysdera crocata

I found this spider crawling across the white sheet whilst moth trapping last night. Compared to other spiders it was relatively easy to identify. It's one of the Woodlouse spiders rather appropriately named because it hunts at night for Woodlice. Once narrowed down to Dysdera it's the number of bristles at the base of the hind femur that distinguishes crocata from the similar erythrina. Crocata has 1-3 and erythrina has none. My spider had one dorsal bristle at the base of the left femur which could be seen clearly under the microscope.

Dysdera crocata

Philodromus spiders

I seen a number of crab spiders recently and decided to attempt to identify some to species level. There are seventeen species of Philodromus several of which are common and widespread. The spider in the picture below is a female with the epigyne in the inset. The closest match is P.cespitum but this is by no means conclusive.

Philodromus sp pos cespitum

Zebra Spider Salticus scenicus

It took some time but managed my first female spider this evening. Salticus scenicus is one of two common jumping spiders the other being S.cingulatus. Separation is said to be possible by the arrangement of hairs on the abdomen but I couldn't work this out so decided to opt for the epigyne instead. This was more successful although took some time and a little plucking to be satisfied.

Salticus scenicus

Another sunny day with a brisk breeze but still quite warm in sheltered areas. Nothing too impressive found today but still some good additions to the year list. Here's a selection of some of the highlights of the day.

22-spot Ladybird

Nigma puella

Lecidella elaeochroma