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Bowl and Doily Weaver (Frontinella pyramitela)
Photo#87570
Copyright © 2006
Gayle and Jeanell Strickland
Small spider -
Frontinella pyramitela
Baton Rouge, Brookhollow Drive, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, USA
November 10, 2006
Size: body length 2.1 mm.
Detail of eyes
Images of this individual:
tag all
Contributed by
Gayle and Jeanell Strickland
on 18 November, 2006 - 10:21am
Last updated 21 November, 2006 - 1:07pm
eye arrangement
This image is being used in the
eye arrangement article
, thanks!
…
Lynette Elliott
, 20 November, 2008 - 9:14am
Thanks
to all of you for your comments! I believe Jeff is on target. The size and swollen pedipalps suggest a subadult male.
Images have been moved to species page with reference to gender removed.
…
Gayle and Jeanell Strickland
, 21 November, 2006 - 1:02pm
It
looks more like a male due to the swollen pedipalps.
…
Jeff Hollenbeck
, 18 November, 2006 - 12:54pm
Gender of specimen
We spent considerable time puzzling over the gender of this specimen. The size is consistant with that of a subadult. The enlarged pedipalps suggest male, while the abdominal pattern is that of a female. Photos of the male and female may be seen in this book
(
1
)
. The male is described as smaller in size, with tan carapace and legs and a dull white abdomen becoming brownish at the posterior end. I presume the photos and descriptions are of adults To add to the confusion, the photo of the male is not a good match for the description. It seemed unlikely that the subadult male would have the pattern and color of a female (although we are discovering that ANYTHING is possible and most things are likely when considering the color and pattern of spiders!). A search of the internet produced no images designated male. We checked most of the images of F. pyramitela on BugGuide and found none with an indication of gender. Perhaps the best course of action is to remove the gender designation of this specimen.
If no further info is forthcoming, this is the action we plan to take.
Gayle
…
Gayle and Jeanell Strickland
, 19 November, 2006 - 4:31pm
Yes
only the adults are described in that book and most others.
Also remember that many male spiders appear identical in color/pattern to females until the final instar.
If it is a male at that size, maybe it is two instars from maturity.
Probably too small to be certain. Did not notice the size previously.
…
Jeff Hollenbeck
, 20 November, 2006 - 5:42am
There are also some images on the subfamily page
that have not been moved to genus or species yet. Perry has a set of images much like yours but with narrower palps. Bill and Lynette both have large females with narrow palps. Jo and Lynette have images of males that have not been identified yet. Many of the subfamily images seem to be clearly Frontinella, Neriene, and Pityohyphantes, but we're hesitant to move them to the genus or species pages without some confirmation. Maybe a Linyphiid expert will come along and straighten this out for us. Below are the images we referred to:
…
john and jane balaban
, 19 November, 2006 - 8:39pm