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Photo#160716
Jumping Spider - Evarcha proszynskii

Jumping Spider - Evarcha proszynskii
Lacey (near Olympia), Thurston County, Washington, USA
October 4, 2007

Moved
Moved from Jumping Spiders.

My vote
would be for a drab female Evarcha proszynskii.


From Rod Crawford:
"possibly Tutelina similis - which is quite rare in your area"

 
from Rod
"In answer to the question how am I getting this to similis, it just
looks similar to collected similis specimens from Shelton to the west
of this locality and Smith Prairie to the east. But it's only a guess."

 
???
I'm almost afraid to ask, but how is Rod getting this to similis? I just recently gutted our similis page by moving all the "green" females with a basal abdominal band to elegans based on the keys provided by Katon(1). I considered gray specimens to be likely juvenile (based on my experience of rearing just one confirmed female elegans from antepenultimate to adult) and removed those to genus.

That said, I do have an adult female specimen similar to this one in markings and color that I have very tentatively identified as Tutelina based on a quick examination of the undissected epigynum. I'll take that one apart and see what I can make of it.

 
Not sure
I know that when Rod says possibly that it means that it is a possibility, definitely not sure. I've found that he is reluctant to ID my jumping spiders. He always says I should have gotten a picture of the epigynum (carry a plastic bag, capture the spider and get a close-up shot). However, I never seem to have the bag handy, and they aren't easy to catch either.

 
Okay, this is embarrassing
I removed the epigynum from my spider and got it all cleaned up (very tedious work) and the only work left before mounting it to a slide was to remove some extra "skin" from the sides. The scalpel slipped from my fingers and knocked the dissecting dish upside-down onto the roughed wood cover of my workbench! The epigynum, about .3mm across, is somewhere within a 3"x3" area of my bench. (it gets worse)

So I sent photos of my spider (which I was starting to think was a Sassacus along with Kevin's) and a link to this one to Wayne Maddison, asking if they were the same, and/or what the heck are they? His response for Kevin's photos was: "Not a Tutelina. Probably a Phanias, e.g. Phanias albeolus."

I don't have any descriptions for Phanias, but if you're curious about some of the differences I noticed between this spider and Tutelina similis the Peckhams' 1909 descriptions for Tutelina similis and elegans (helpful to read both) are online here. BTW, I wasn't assuming Rod meant anything more than "possibility", I was just wondering what he saw so I can avoid screwing up some of the groups I'm trying fix.

I explained my dissection mishap to Wayne, and his response for my spider was: "Sassacus. Looks like S. vitis, which I didnt' realize gets that far east. If you can get one with genitalia...." Yup, rubbed my nose in it! If I can find the epigynum, and it isn't warped and destroyed, it might be the first record for vitis in Ohio.

Bags can be difficult to use for catching because they aren't rigid enough. It might be easier to catch them in a plastic cup and then transfer to the bag. I often carry around one of these very durable freezer jars. OTOH, those jars can't be folded up to fit in your back pocket.

 
Oh my!
Get out your magnifying glass, you have some tedious work ahead. Good luck! Thanks for all the info as well.

Moved
Moved from Spiders.

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