Levi (1975) writes that the most common species of Mangora in the eastern United States are M. placida and M. maculata, M. placida maturing in the spring and M. maculata in the summer; they are both found frequently in the undergrowth of woods. M. gibberosa is found more commonly in meadows and fields and matures early to late summer. Levi notes that these species are not restricted to the noted habitats, i.e., M. gibberosa may also be found in the woods, etc.

In addition to these three species, there is also a south-eastern species, M. spiculata. (We're ignoring the southwestern and Mexican species here.)

Browsing through Levi's keys, we can rule out M. gibberosa as our specimen appears to lack "black longitudinal lines on venters of first and second femora" and the dorsum is lacking the two to three typical stripe-like lines that are characteristic of M. gibberosa (and its European cousin, M. acalypha).

Skipping over a couple Central American species, we come to: "carapace without black median longitudinal line" and "abdomen with three pairs of black spots posteriorly". This would key to M. maculata, which we can tentatively rule out here as the median line on the carapace is lacking.

Comparing known images of M. placida and M. spiculata, in my opinion this is M. spiculata. But is this species present in Wisconsin? M. spiculata is considered a southeastern species (although a few records for the northeastern US are also noted).

As always, it would be helpful (and give us a much more certain answer) if we could see the genitalia. (Did you collect this specimen, by any chance?)

-Kevin

we were thinking M. spiculata, but we're still hesitant about these. Hope we get an expert to stop by some day.