Unidentified yellow and black Spider - SE Oregon - ID please - Phidippus nikites

Moved

Moved from Phidippus apacheanus. Thanks, Don! I went ahead and moved him to P. nikites. I think it is a safe move.

… Mandy Howe, 7 November, 2013 - 12:43am

P. nikites instead?

This species came up elsewhere so I found myself in the salticid section and just made a new page for P. nikites and am thinking this might be one as well, based on the description and range given in Edwards 2004(1). That species is really similar-looking to P. apacheanus and maybe the only way for us to (tentatively) separate the two is by range (maps: nikites, apacheanus).
So Oregon might be far enough away from the last published range of apacheanus to really be P. nikites instead? What do you guys think? Oh, and I couldn't find any other described species of Phidippus in Oregon that would/should look like this.
I also wonder if any of the CA specimens labeled as P. apacheanus are actually P. nikites, but I'm too scared to move them http://bugguide.net/adv_search/bgsearch.php?taxon=27092&location[]=CA. Especially with how many range expansions I've seen in other species. With an Oregon specimen, it feels a little less risky to make assumptions based on those two maps.

… Mandy Howe, 20 October, 2013 - 4:30am

Excellent point

I've been hesitant to i.d. any California images that appear to be apacheanus since they are probably nikites. I would agree that this is most likely nikites and the only way for us to differentiate them with superficial images is geographically.

… Don Cadle, 31 October, 2013 - 5:55am

Moved

Moved from ID Request.

… Lynette Elliott, 24 December, 2010 - 11:17am

Phidippus apacheanus

Phidippus apacheanus, most likely.

… dragonfly12, 23 December, 2010 - 2:30pm