Metepeira spider - Metepeira comanche

Moved

Moved from Metepeira arizonica.

After reviewing all your images and getting some comments from John Balaban via email it looks like this spider is a better match for M. comanche based on pattern, coloring and ventral markings. I'm not sure why I didn't consider this species in my original list of options.

… Lynette Elliott, 30 January, 2013 - 11:48pm

Moved

Moved from Metepeira.

… Lynette Elliott, 20 July, 2012 - 8:49am

TX Metepeira

Based on range I think we need to consider M. arizonica & M. alpina. M. alpina has the ventral abdominal stripe, but not the white on the sternum. M. arizonica has both white on the ventral side of the abdomen & the sternum. The range also matches closely to spiders collected in 2001. I think it's a pretty strong possibility that your spider is M. arizonica.

… Lynette Elliott, 19 July, 2012 - 2:59pm

cool! thank you for all your

cool! thank you for all your work Lynn

… Aimee Williams, 19 July, 2012 - 7:59pm

Moved to Metepeira

Moved from Labyrinth Orbweaver.

I've moved this one back to genus level for now. We'll have to read over the paper on this genus to determine if we can place to species level.

… Lynette Elliott, 18 July, 2012 - 8:59am

TX Metepeira

Hi Aimee. With quite a few Metepeira found in TX is there some way you are sure this is M. labyrinthea?

… Lynette Elliott, 17 July, 2012 - 9:46pm

actually no I'm not sure, I h

actually no I'm not sure, I haven't found any pics of the different species, I would like to though, I will keep searching for a way to identify it for sure. The web matches though.

… Aimee Williams, 17 July, 2012 - 10:29pm

Ventral view

I don't think those two new shots will help with ID. A ventral view would help since different species in this genus have different ventral markings. However, even with that ventral I'm not 100% sure we'll get to species.

… Lynette Elliott, 19 July, 2012 - 8:59am