Little Spider - Dolichognatha pentagona

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I asked Mandy Howe what she thought and she said: "Nice find!! Yep, I think there is enough to go on to add a new genus and species page for it. It's unique enough for North America that there's not really anything else I can think of that it could be."

… Laura P., 28 August, 2013 - 1:04pm

Dolichognatha?

Great find! I've been really tied up over the last couple of weeks and don't have time to check the literature right now, but it looks like a good match for Dolichognatha to me. I think the carapace shape, eye arrangement (tiny, closely spaced PMEs) and short clypeus look different from Ero or the other pirate spiders.

… Kyron Basu, 25 August, 2013 - 2:18pm

Thanks. :)

I've been very busy lately as well. Overtired and in a hurry to add some soil in this spider's jar yesterday (I had it in a smaller container that I had placed inside a larger jar, it built a web across the top of the smaller container and was content to hang there upside down. The strands were too fine for me to say whether it was an orb or not.) Anyway, I was about to leave for the day and was in a hurry, I set the jar down on a patio block and started swatting at a swarm of mosquitoes not realizing the patio block wasn't stable. Jar fell over. Spider is gone, living in my garden now. I'm going back to the area where I found it, hopefully I'll find more.

… Laura P., 25 August, 2013 - 4:29pm

Didn't find another.

I looked but could not find another today. I figured there must be more than one on that tree but all I found were lots of Parasteatoda spiderlings, I guess they out compete a lot of species. I did find what I think is an immature male Tapinopa bilineata though, maybe I'll keep him instead. :/

… Laura P., 26 August, 2013 - 9:38pm

...

Oh well, I'm sure another will turn up. Nice find on the Tapinopa too - the first male for the guide!

… Kyron Basu, 27 August, 2013 - 12:01am

At least keeping the ...

Tapinopa turned out well. He turned into a real looker, lol....

… Laura P., 19 September, 2013 - 12:22pm

...

Ha, seriously. I like that eye cluster. :p

… Kyron Basu, 19 September, 2013 - 12:25pm

Exciting! Are you raising it?

What a great find!

… john and jane balaban, 23 August, 2013 - 10:06pm

Thanks! I'll try....

it's so tiny I doubt I'll be successful but I'll keep it and see what happens. At the moment it's in a (except for some fruit flies) small empty container. I'm afraid if I put it in a jar with some substrate it will disappear and I won't be able to find it again. If it doesn't make it I found it on my Mom's property and now I know where to look for them, so maybe I'll be able to find more. I haven't looked in the woods yet, there is a frightening amount of poison ivy there.

… Laura P., 23 August, 2013 - 11:55pm

The article by Levi is

here. The map on pg 278 does make it seem farther south, but who knows? It's been twenty some years.

… john and jane balaban, 23 August, 2013 - 3:41pm

Dolichognatha

Apparently southern New Jersey is considered to have a humid sub-tropical climate, I never realized that before. According to the article they're a forest species that like to make their webs between tree roots and I also found this one at the base of a tree across from a wooded area.

… Laura P., 23 August, 2013 - 9:28pm

Another possibility

but we don't know these spiders are Dolichognatha

… john and jane balaban, 23 August, 2013 - 1:38pm

Dolichognatha

I recently got SONA for my birthday, there's a drawing of Dolichognatha in there ... I think that might be a match! I thought it was an orb weaver at first but the carapace was throwing me. I'm out right now, I'll try to get better images and a ventral later.

… Laura P., 23 August, 2013 - 2:54pm

Range

Any idea what the range is, I saw them listed as tropical/subtropical which I think would put me well out of range ... But it really looks like a match.

… Laura P., 23 August, 2013 - 3:31pm

The western Ero do have that body shape

Have never understood why Tom's eastern one doesn't. Will have to do some reading on these before we can say more

… john and jane balaban, 23 August, 2013 - 10:20am

Ero

Yes, I noticed that. If it's Ero I guess it should be E. leonina? Two things I noticed that didn't seem consistent with other Eros I saw were that the anterior tubercles look wider spaced than the posterior ones instead of the other way around and the anterior half of the carapace looks more elongated.

… Laura P., 23 August, 2013 - 12:28pm