Pretty Spider - Araneus bivittatus

Moved

Moved from holding bin for green Araneus.

… john and jane balaban, 1 April, 2016 - 11:02am

Moved

Moved from Araneus.

… john and jane balaban, 25 November, 2013 - 11:26pm

probably not juniperi

Hi,

I don't think this is A. juniperi. I don't have a photo of a living one, however I'm still on the hunt in the only place in Ohio I've found them. I've got a photo of one (dead in alcohol) but I'm unclear about how to post it here. Sorry to be a dolt about the system.

The point is my photo shows broad green longitudinal bands with no hint of red and only hints of paired spots at the back. My memory of the living spider was that it was bright green and white, without any trace of other color. The cephalothorax and legs were dark green and uniform (without banding).

Rich

… Richard Bradley, 18 August, 2012 - 10:35am

You can post your image by going to ID Request

clicking on add image and filling in the submission form. You will only need to Browse to the place on your computer where you have the image. Image must be smaller than 2MB.
If you have problems, let us know.

How did yours compare to this

… john and jane balaban, 18 August, 2012 - 10:48am

Thanks Richard,

If you'd rather you can email it to me and I'll post it for you. We'd love to have a voucher image for that species!

… Lynette Elliott, 18 August, 2012 - 11:13am

That's great

Hadn't realized that bivittatus might have those large red spots too. Not near a book right now. Let's see what Lynette finds when she reads about it. Great that you found it again.

… john and jane balaban, 27 May, 2012 - 6:53pm

Araneus gadus?

The specimen still has the red spots surrounded by white which is more like A. gadus. Compare with

However, it may not be done developing?

… Lynette Elliott, 30 May, 2012 - 9:57am

My bad... A. gadus has black spots

but also A. bivittatus says its spots are not symmetrical in pairs.

It also says A. bivittatus is the only Araneus that has two distinct red longitudinal dorsal bands grading into green on each end (except indistinct bands reported in some southern specimens of A. juniperi). I don't think these bands grade into green. There's red & there's green to the side of those. I guess more reading is needed.

Edit - Full disclaimer... I've been wanting to find an A. juniperi, so keep that in mind.... Do you guys think this could possibly be A. juniperi? Here are some of the descriptions for that species
1. abdomen sub-spherical with three longitudinal bands of dense white pigment
2. may or may not have paired red spots
3. Carapace greenish yellow
4. mandibles with red lines
5. legs with some elongate red spots less distinct on hind pairs
6. Abdomen greenish yellow with two prominent sub-median red stripes

I guess the number one question is.. is this abdomen sub-spherical or oval? Did you take any other angles of this spider?

… Lynette Elliott, 18 July, 2012 - 4:31pm

Sorry, don't think we're going to be of any help

We don't know if the images on BugGuide of juniperi or gadus are correct. There don't seem to be other images of them available online. Descriptions in Levi talk about green stripes and red stripes and spots or not. He finishes bivittatus by saying "two female specimens ... had red stripes ... and paired red spots at the edges of the stripes"!!

Don't know how to make sense of all the different descriptions. Don't know what is most important, shape of the abdomen? paired red spots? paired black spots? macrosetae on the legs, or not? Will have to wait till the new spider books come out and hope that we can see what some of these species look like. Sorry :(

… john and jane balaban, 18 July, 2012 - 9:20pm