Chrysso nordica (habitus images)

From a friend in Hungary: http://spinnen-forum.de/smf/index.php?topic=8508.msg

He writes that they were in a sandy region in eastern Hungary and the specimen was attracted to their light (they were collecting moths).

Levi (1957e) lists records from the Northwest Territories, as well as California, Montana and Colorado but refers to the species as rare (photos seem to be even rarer).

Something to keep an eye out for, esp. when sweeping grassy meadows; I see no reason that we can't also find this in western South Dakota (for example).

Contributed by Kevin Pfeiffer on 6 September, 2011 - 6:17am

The nomenclature of this species is a little confusing. In Spiders of North America (2004), Levi keys it out to Arctachaea nordica, p.241: 30(29). He resurrected Arctachaea and a few other synonymized theridiid genera in that publication "to avoid polyphyletic genera." (P. 236)

Arctachaea was the genus originally assigned to this spider by Levi in 1957; he later moved it to Chrysso in 1962. For some reason, Platnick hasn't recognized Levi's 2004 switch back to Arctachaea, and The World Spider Catalog still lists nordica in Chrysso. On the other hand, the Checklist of the spiders of Canada and Alaska (Paquin, et al. 2010) shows it as Arctachaea nordica.

… John Sloan, 16 February, 2012 - 2:25am

A beauty

Thanks for the image.

… Lynette Elliott, 9 September, 2011 - 8:02am

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