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Photo#917489
Subfamily Erigoninae - Dwarf Spiders or Family Dictynidae - Mesh Web Weavers??? - Zodarion - female

Subfamily Erigoninae - Dwarf Spiders or Family Dictynidae - Mesh Web Weavers??? - Zodarion - Female
Long Beach, Los Angeles County, California, USA
May 6, 2014
Size: ~ 2mm
In a pitfall trap in a restored grassland

Images of this individual: tag all
Subfamily Erigoninae - Dwarf Spiders or Family Dictynidae - Mesh Web Weavers??? - Zodarion - female Subfamily Erigoninae - Dwarf Spiders or Family Dictynidae - Mesh Web Weavers??? - Zodarion - female Subfamily Erigoninae - Dwarf Spiders or Family Dictynidae - Mesh Web Weavers??? - Zodarion - female

Congratulations on...
the new genus. Great find!

Zodarion sp.
Based on the spiders size, unspined legs, and unusual eye arrangement (very large, dark anterior median eyes with silverish, procurved posterior eye row) I feel confident that this is a member of the genus Zodarion (a new genus for Bugguide - Well done!). There is an unidentified species of Zodarion that matches this spider known from a small area of serpentine grasslands in California's Central Valley. That's not to say that it couldn't be more widespread than currently recognized or that there might be a second unidentified species living on the southern California coast.

 
That's fantastic ...
what do you recommend she do if she finds another?

 
CAS
If she is able to collect several adults (preferably at least one adult male and one adult female), I would highly recommend sending them to Darrell Ubick in the entomology department at the California Academy of Sciences. He would be an excellent resource and they would be incorporated into a world-class arachnology collection.

 
Sent to Ubick
We collected some more and sent them to Darrel Ubick via Jamet Kempf at the Los Angeles Museum of Nature History. She will ultimately keep them in the museum's collection. Here is his response.

>I have had a chance to look at your nice Zodarion specimens; lovely spiders!
>
>They look like the same species which occurs in the Bay Area which I determined some time ago to be near Z. emarginatum (Simon), which may be an undescribed Nearctic species or a poorly known (i.e., unillustrated Palearctic one).

Moved
Moved from Spiders.

RJ Adams description of the eyes
in Spiders of California (1) is a perfect match. We will leave a couple of notes and see if he will comment??

 
Good thinking.
:)

 
Very cool spider!
Thank you for linking me to this! I've seen preserved specimens but never photos of living California Zodarion before.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

Another suggestion - Dictyna calcarata
One of my local experts has suggested Dictyna calcarata

 
My Mistake
My friend was referring to a different picture I posted at the same time. He was NOT referring to this one.

 
Haha, no worries...
you didn't name names.

 
With that unusual
eye arrangement? I think you may have found something more interesting ... check out Prodidomus:


Cool find! Moving to Araneae for review. Will see if I can find anything out about it later.

 
If you have any more ...
angles that may be helpful.

 
Added another angle
I added one more image. I hopeit helps.

 
Thank you,
I was hoping to see more of the chelicerae or spinnerets, still nice to have another image though. A friend also sent an inquiry to Norman Platnick who worked on the last revision to the genus Neozimiris in 1976 to see what his thoughts are. They'll be away for a week though so there will likely be a delay in hearing back. It looks like you found something rare.

 
Thanks.Cool!
I found another about a week later. They were in the nature center where they are strict about no collect. I'll see if we find more and try to get permission to collect one.

 
That would
be awesome.

 
Looking at...
Some diagrams in SONA ... I think you may have found a Neozimiris pubescens, the shape of the carapace is a match however the abdomen is described as being grayish white. The abdomen on yours is dark, the hair that is there could be described as grayish white though, or maybe that's the color it would be in alcohol. I'll see if I can get a second opinion, and again if you have any more angles that might help, there are some other areas I'm unsure of.

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