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Photo#484431
Found Spider in Colorado - Castianeira alteranda - male

Found Spider in Colorado - Castianeira alteranda - Male
Fort Collins, Northern Colorado County, Colorado, USA
September 28, 2010
Found this the other day in my office in Fort Collins, caught it because of the coloring and decided that I wanted to shoot a photo of it

Dorsal view of

Moved
Moved from Castianeira.

The DMNS database lists the f
The DMNS database lists the following species collected in Colorado:

alteranda (12 specimens)
descripta (27)
longipalpa (25)
mexicana (1, Delta County)
occidens 27)
variata (4)
sp. (4)

I think that we can rule out descripta, longipalpa, occidens, and variata based on known images and/or descriptions. C. mexicana also seems somehow unlikely (Reiskind, 1969 inspected only one specimen).

 
Sounds good to me
I think we'll trust your judgement on this one. I haven't read about these.

 
amoena species group (Reiskind)
What I forgot to mention is that Reiskind (1969) assigned both alteranda and amoena to the amoena species group. They are, however, allopatric (in separate regions), he writes, and the extreme western limit of collected amoena specimens (it's really a southern species) is eastern Nebraska.

The reason I write all that is that the bright orange somehow reminds me of amoena. That said, Dondale & Redner (1982) write that the alteranda "dorsum of abdomen [has] four or more black transverse bands". Reiskind? He writes that the abdomen is "oval with a seven-eighths full red-brown dorsal sclerite covered with orange-white and black hairs in obscure bands (most rubbed off)". So take your pick.

Perhaps we can ask someone at the Denver Museum to take a quick look. (Done; will report back.)

-K

I've never seen the species,
I've never seen the species, but perhaps C. alteranda?? (Specimen collected?)

* I had to look twice before I figured out that it's not Lynette with an office in Fort Collins (which I only know from Colorado).

-K

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