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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Chelicerates (Chelicerata) » Arachnids (Arachnida) » Spiders (Araneae) » True Spiders (Araneomorphae) » Entelegynae » Sheetweb and Dwarf Spiders (Linyphiidae) » Dwarf Spiders (Erigoninae) » Mermessus » Mermessus maculatus
Photo#375173
spider - Mermessus maculatus - male
Copyright © 2010 tom murray

spider - Mermessus maculatus - Male
Groton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA
March 6, 2010
Size: 1.6mm
Found in leaf litter.

Images of this individual: tag all
spider - Mermessus maculatus - male spider - Mermessus maculatus - male spider - Mermessus maculatus - male
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Contributed by tom murray on 6 March, 2010 - 5:52pm
Last updated 19 March, 2022 - 10:12am

Moved
Moved from Spiders.
Thanks Kevin. Being so widespread, it's surprising that this is the first image for bugguide.
… tom murray, 7 November, 2010 - 4:30pm login or register to post comments

 
..
I think that's because we're pretty much the only ones, so far, specializing in "2 mm and under"; John Sloan may also run into them.

And who knows, perhaps there already are a couple images here that we've simply not placed.

But I imagine you mean that you are surprised that you've not found them sooner.
… Kevin Pfeiffer, 8 November, 2010 - 12:59am login or register to post comments

Mermessus maculatus (Eperigone maculata)
Something new, Tom!

In the 1940s, when Kaston wrote that it was "our commonest species of the genus" in Spiders of Connecticut, the genus he was referring to was Eperigone, named by Crosby & Bishop in 1928. Much later, according to the World Spider Catalog, it was determined that Mr. O. P.-Cambridge's 1899 Mermessus was a senior synonym and everything "Eperigonic" suddenly became "Mermessuic".

A distinctive pedipalp and probably recognizable in the future from your macro images.

Specimen: kmp-6295

BTW, according to the WSC, this little creature is found from "Russia, Canada, to Guatemala".
… Kevin Pfeiffer, 7 November, 2010 - 2:26pm login or register to post comments

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