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Photo#395355
Araneae 5-12-10 01a - Micaria

Araneae 5-12-10 01a - Micaria
Repubblic, Ferry County, Washington, USA
May 12, 2010
Size: ~7mm long body
A small shiny spider found under a piece of shale in the interpretive center backyard. The specimen would not move until poked, but was quick when motivated.

Images of this individual: tag all
Araneae 5-12-10 01a - Micaria Araneae 5-12-10 01b - Micaria

Moved
Moved from Spiders.

From Rod Crawford:
This is clearly a Micaria. Castianeira has a very different carapace
shape. I can't tell the species from this pattern, as it doesn't match
the pattern of any Micaria I've sketched. The rear chevron is commonly
found in Micaria spp. but the front jet-airplane shape is new to me.
"Only the epigynum can tell you for sure."

 
Oops, guess we get a D- this
Oops, guess we get a D- this time! :-) Back to the books.

-Kevin

 
Gnaphosidae
I hadn't even thought of that family. Looks like there's 41 species of Micaria to choose from.

 
Hmm
I will keep an eye out for more of these little ones and see if I can get the needed picture angles :)

Very interesting spider; I as
Very interesting spider; I think that Eric is correct. Perhaps a Phrurolithus or Phruro-something.

Should be possible to figure out the species due to the unusual pattern, but might take some digging.

-Kevin

P.S. -- Seeing that it is in Washington, Rod Crawford should recognize it, I would think. Perhaps Lynette can ask him to take a look?

 
I mentioned this spidey to Rod
I agree with Corinnidae and was actually thinking maybe Castianeira since I read in Reiskind's 1969 revision that the white stripes are easily brushed off... so I wondered if that could account for some of the uniqueness of this beaut's pattern. I've never seen any of the Phruro- before, but based on SONA, Phrurolithus can be counted out. There's only one species and it's in NY. The rest of the species that are cataloged as Phrurolithus are actually of the Scotinella genus (info on pg. 82 of SONA). But like I said, I don't know what any of those look like anyways and haven't seen any revisions on them before (yet). I did nudge Rod this way. I know if he has the time, he will take a look.

 
Yes, Castianeira sounds good
Yes, Castianeira sounds good to me -- I need to pay more attention to SONA. Thanks for the information, Mandy!

-K

Corinnidae.
Pretty sure this is a member of the family Corinnidae, but do wait and see what Lynette or Mandy has to say :-) Nice images!

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