...my images and providing an updated theory as to the identification. Fascinating stuff, and I am eager to see how this one plays out. Unfortunately, I'm really far too new to my study of arachnids to be able to support or defend any speculations regarding this spider's identity, but I thought it might be useful information for you to know a little more about the area in which I live. Although it might be technically LA county, we are really in more of an unincorporated area in a canyon in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains (about 1500-2000 ft. elevation), roughly north of the Claremont/La Verne area. The property on which we live is more than 50 acres and is only very minimally developed. Also, we are sandwiched between conservancy land and a regional park, thus providing a fairly large protected corridor for all manner of wildlife. The habitat is a mixture of chaparral and also several seasonal streams which are surrounded by oak woodland. I'm not sure if any of this will affect your opinion one way or the other, but just thought I would mention it since the specific area where we live is quite different than much of LA county.

harsi,

sounds like a wonderful place to live. we've collected Aptostichus along Mt Baldy road, and I suspect that your canyon must be generally similar in habitat?

you almost certainly have 2-3 other species of mygalomorphs living on your property...lucky you!

cheers,

m hedin

We are not fortunate enough to own the property, but everyday we have rented our cabin here for the past four years I wake up feeling quite lucky. As far as the habitat goes, I would say that some of it is similar to the stuff around Mt Baldy road, but because we are in a canyon with running streams, the vegetation has access to a lot more moisture. So, maybe more similar to say Palmer Canyon, if you are familiar with that location... In regards to the other species of mygalomorphs, we seem to get CA Trapdoor Spider on a pretty regular basis and we have an extremely healthy population of tarantulas (which I'm guessing might be A. iodius given the comments on this site, but I haven't submitted any of my images of them yet).

Once again, thank you so much for taking an interest in my spider. I hope to have more mygalomorph discoveries to share with you soon!

I moved your images to the genus level. Thanks for posting this, I have a new concept of the Mygalomorphs. I had no idea they could look this thin and long-legged.

...for providing me with an ID, Dr. Hendrixson. As you may have read in one of my previous comments, I was speculating that I thought it looked a lot like the images of Calisoga species I had reviewed. I am pleased to know that my sleuthing was headed in the right direction (but not quite so pleased to see that I misspelled the genus name in one place... oops!). As I mentioned before, it seems as though there are only two species listed for California -- C. longitarsus and C. theveneti. As of now, BugGuide does not have any of the Calisoga specimens narrowed down to species-level. Don't suppose there is any way you can tell which one it is from my not-so-hot photos?

[NOTE: I frassed the blurry photo of leg I.]

Unfortunately, no. The genus is badly in need of a revision - in fact, there is a lot of contention surrounding those two species. It will be resolved in the future, I am sure.

This is definitely a male mygalymorph of some type, but I don't even know what family. I'm hoping Jay Barnes will recognize it.

Lynette, thanks for the suggestion! I definitely spent a lot of time looking at the Kukulcania before I posted. There were two prominent features in most examples of this genus that seemed to be lacking in my specimen: 1) the smooth, velvety-like abdomen, and 2) the contrasting light rings at the base of the leg attachments. I wish that I had taken better photos, but it was really rather late at night when I found this guy and I was already headed to bed. I went ahead and uploaded an enlargement of one of the photos, which is of pretty poor quality but I wanted to try to show the furry abdomen and spiky hairs on the legs.

Eric (also, thank you!), while I was searching through mygalomorphs, I found myself repeatedly lingering on the imges of Tube Trapdoor Spiders (Calistoga sp.). However, I can find no sign of prominent spinnerets, which I thought were characteristic of this group. This list of CA spiders only has two species listed: Calisoga longitarsus and Calisoga theveneti (which is apparently less frequently seen).

I also found this unidentified mygalomorph from Gary McDonald to be intriguing (he lives in similar habitat to me and often posts images of species that I see commonly):



I was enlightened to learn that I had photographed a male. I had thought that the tapered abdomen looked very masculine, and after reading a bit more, I have now learned that not all male spiders have the appearance of swollen pedipalps. As you can see, his are very straight and slender. I had thought perhaps I would find some evidence of a mating spur and have uploaded another photo showing leg I, but I'm having a hard time seeing much with the crappy resolution of my image.

I know this post was lengthy... but, hopefully this extra info. will help and perhaps lead someone to a more conclusive ID.

Sorry, my knowledge outside of Salticidae is very spotty.

Looks like a Mygalomorph to me, and I can see why Lynette would be a little confused from this image. She is possibly like me, in that I've never seen one with actual scale cover like this.

Brent Hendrixson stops by every so often to help clean out our Mygals, so you could drop him an e-mail asking for help. He's generally quite responsive and always very helpful.

If nothing happens I can add Mygalomorphae to my Winder to-do list.

...I have gone ahead and sent an e-mail to Dr. Hendrixson requesting his opinion. I really appreciate you taking the time to make the suggestion. And don't apologize for your lack of knowledge in this area... Trust me, I have PLENTY of unidentified Salticidae just waiting in the wings for your expertise.