on Brittle Bush flower - Araneus

Moved

Moved from Spiders. I looked at Levi 1973 again this morning (it's available online). Cochise images are 55-59. The female is supposed to be image 59 but it doesn't look much like the specimen we are trying to ID. The description says Cochise has an indistinct brown patch on each side of the head, dorsum with indistinct folium, darkest posteriorly, outlined by black marks, bordered laterally by white spots. There is a white patch on each side below the hump. I still don't know what to think.

… Lynette Elliott, 20 February, 2015 - 7:40am

Dusted off my Araneus reference (Levi, 1973)

which does not include A. abigeatus (Levi 1971 A. illaudatus f.233-237), A. apache (Levi, 1975) or A. santarita (Levi 1971). I need to review those other references when I get to my own computer later in the day.

Assuming we're not looking at a juvenile that might be completely different than the adults - the spider does not match well to A. chiricahua (now A. guerrerensis) or A. cochise.

… Lynette Elliott, 9 January, 2015 - 8:17am

Wow! What a beauty,

but we don't have a suggestion :(

… john and jane balaban, 14 March, 2014 - 9:10am

small western species of Araneus?

Maybe this is one of the ones we don't have yet. I'll try to check out allani, cochise & chiricahua.

… Lynette Elliott, 14 March, 2014 - 9:25am

The ones I came up with ...

to look into were A. abigeatus, A. allani, A. apache, A. cochise and A. santarita. I don't have any good resources for Araneus, the only thing I could find was a paper from the Journal of Arachnology for A. cochise that describes it thus: "A black stripe extends from the middle anterior portion of the abdomen posteriorly to the humps and branches outward to the folium which is more distinct than in other Araneus."

… Laura P., 14 March, 2014 - 10:13am

That's what I was thinking

and I got excited that this might be cochise, but I couldn't get any of the descriptions to really fit. Plus I didn't know how to decide it wasn't a young illaudatus or some such. That's when I gave up :(

… john and jane balaban, 14 March, 2014 - 10:04am

I should mention that

this was not in the mountains but in the flat part of the desert

… margarethe brummermann, 14 March, 2014 - 12:14pm