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Photo#98929
BG677 Spider - Metaltella simoni - female

BG677 Spider - Metaltella simoni - Female
Baton Rouge, Brookhollow Drive, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, USA
February 9, 2007
Size: body length 6.4 mm.
This spider was captured on 09 Feb 2007 and photographed on 10 Feb 2007. She was found under a piece of plastic bag in leaf litter. She was maintained in captivity with twice weekly feedings. During the 01 March feeding, an egg sac was noted. On 18 March, about 40 hatchlings were present, and one was photographed. A number of cast skins in the vial indicated that the young had molted at least once. The family was then released by placing the open vial horizontally on ground and lightly covering with leaf litter. On 20 March the family was still present in the vial. Images of a hatchling may be seen here.

Images of this individual: tag all
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Guide Page
This image is being used on the info page. Thanks!

Nice series.
Great series, as usual. May I please ask, however, that you document who made the identification? That would go for all submissions, please. Forgive me if you two are arachnologists, as that information is not on your bio page. Thank you.

 
Specimen ID
In December of 2005, I collected male and female spiders in our yard, which were photographed, placed on BugGuide, and identified as Metaltella simoni by Jeff Hollenbeck. In February of 2007, I decided to look for additional specimens in the same place as before, with the goal of taking improved photographs with attention to important details. Two females were collected, both under pieces of plastic film as were the spiders previously collected. These proved to be an excellent visual match for the female previously collected at the same spot, which is useful, but the key feature that I used to identify the specimen was the rather distinctive epigynum which was a match for the figure here(1). Simoni is the only species in that genus known for the US, which somewhat simplfies things.
If my identification proves to be in error, I will promptly move the images to the proper location.
Gayle
Thanks for the nudge on the missing bio. I find it distressing when an interesting contributor has no bio, but as a lifelong procrastinator, I somehow think I am exempt from supplying one!

 
Really nice!
Hi, Gayle/Jeanell-

In addition to your bio, could you also add your name when writing in the first person? It's otherwise a bit disconcerting, like writing to a mysterious central committee -- it confuses us. :-)

I wanted to ask if you would be willing to submit a dorsal, ventral, and epigynal view to David Shorthouse for the Nearctic Spider Database? If you have a solid ID -- and it sounds like you do (unfortunately my copy of Spiders of North America is still in Germany) -- I think he'd be interested. You can reach him at dshorthouse[at]eol.org or by posting a note here.

Many thanks!

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