Your comment was duplicated. You won't be able to delete one completely, but you can at least delete all the text from one. Please do.

It seems the spider I photographed has been classified Hyptiotes gertschi by bug guide. My original post should have said Hyptiotes sp. since the species is still not a confirmation in my opinion. Information and good photos are still hard to find. My assumption was based on field guide info and the fact that this spider is clearly not the normal for this area. In fact, it may only exist in one small spit of land less then 5 square acres.

I want people to know the story about this spider-- I've lived here much of my life and near the area this spider lives. I have been all over Northwestern Oregon searching for spiders. I've never found a Hyptiotes here except in this one spit of land! I have found all the usual species, not this. Admittedly Hyptiotes is hard to find! There is a small park just across the railroad tracks from the spit of land this spider is located on and there is NO Hyptiotes there! As of 1993-2011 searches by me. I've spent many days searching trying to prove it lives somewhere else (such as forest park) or the local park right next too this land for 20 years now. In high school I searched this area extensively and have been since. I first discovered this spider in 1994 while shooting an amateur documentary film on spiders. It is only on about 4-5 acres of land which is very threatened by development. On all sides except one closed off by the expanding city of Beaverton Oregon. I wonder if this spider rode it's way in from back east or up north with a logging company 100 years ago? Possibly somehow got stranded there, making it the only real population of this species in our area.

I'm serious about this. If anyone else has seen Hyptiotes in Oregon please let me know. As this could even be a new species--although I admit that is very, very unlikely. I am just puzzled by the fact that it only lives in this one area. Spiders have 'races' based on populations and locations like people do. Small color differences do not always mean new species. It can be very difficult to pin down an exact species for this reason. What amazes me is that as far as I have seen, Hyptiotes does not exist in Western Oregon other then this small spit of un-spoiled land in the middle of Beaverton Oregon. I have been so perplexed by this I searched countless times in different places near and far. No where else. What is this? Is it H. gertschi as Bug guide suggests or is it something else? How did this spider get here and why has it not been able to move from this small area? It must not be able to balloon out of there or it would have spread. I am going back this year to check the area again, I will report what I find and post photos. The species competes with the very common Linyphiinae for small flies and mosquitoes. There must be enough of this pray to survive, this may be why it is only found in a dense forested area like this small place. I would hate to see them disappear. They made the area next too it a Park, but this one remains up for grabs. I would like to see the species populated into the park if they are going to destroy the spit of land this species is on. I've had these questions now for literally 20 years and I have no solid answers. As I say I will keep looking, if it is H. gertschi then possibly it came in via the last time the logged the area back in the turn of the 20th century with the equipment or maybe just survived for some rare reason. If anyone knows anything about populations of Hyptiotes sp. in Northwestern Oregon, let me know. Sometimes logging and habitat destruction can leave a species stranded. It is possible this happened here, in urban areas species that used to be common can become scarce and sometimes even vanish. I would hate to think that last spit of land gets developed and that is the end of Hyptiotes in Oregon. --G.Beasley website=http://gabebeas.blogspot.com

Moved from Triangle web spiders.

Moved from Spiders. According to our resources Hyptiotes cavatus is an eastern species. I'd guess it's more likely H. gertschi?, though I suppose it might be H. tehama, which we don't know much about. I tried to open the PDF on the info page, but it wasn't working for me.

Moved from Arthropods.