black spider - Plectreurys

Moved

Moved from Spiders.

… Lynette Elliott, 30 January, 2010 - 10:28am

Plectreurys seems right

There's this from Gertsch:

Plectreurys Simon: first femur robust, curved, typically shorter than the carapace, lacking dorsal spines except rarely at base.

(Which looks like a match, here.)

Then:
The members of this genus are rather readily separated into two series on the basis of the following combination of characters.
Posterior eye row typically a little [procurved]*, more rarely straight [...] .................... castanea group
Posterior eye row slightly to moderately recurved, rarely straight [...] ............................ tristis group

Beyond that I think we'd need to see a male specimen up close.

* The text reads "recurved", but this is a typographical error as the illustration clearly shows the posterior eye row being procurved.

-Kevin

… Kevin Pfeiffer, 30 January, 2010 - 2:43am

Interesting

Don't you love it when you find a mistake in a key? Now how do you know which is right the description or the illustration? :)

Looks like all the species are found in CA, so won't be easy to figure it out that way.

… Lynette Elliott, 30 January, 2010 - 10:27am

And I know from painful experience the sinking feeling of seeing a typo (or worse) frozen for 'eternity' in print on the page.

In the text itself he also mentions the PER being slightly procurved. But for the life of me, I can't see anything more than the medial eyes in your photo.

Time-permitting, I want to read further in his article. I still think we might be able to at least get the group down, using his descriptions. Worth a try, at least.

-K

… Kevin Pfeiffer, 30 January, 2010 - 11:13am

I added an image

It's still nearly impossible to tell, but I'm leaning toward posterior eye row procurved.

… Lynette Elliott, 30 January, 2010 - 11:31am