Showing posts with label Pisaurina mira. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pisaurina mira. Show all posts

Friday, May 25, 2007

Dolomedes triton--NOT!

Correction

I try to be careful--but sometimes I'm not--and then even if I'm corrected, a misidentification may persist forever in the Google cache.

I've adjusted the text below, and the title, in response to the comment Bev of Burning Silo kindly left on this post, pointing out that this is another spider altogether--probably a Pisaurina mira. The linked page includes a photo of what I think is a female of this species. Mine was probably a male, given the clubbed appearance of the palps.

Back in April, as described in this post, I found a spider on the kitchen floor that was identifed for me as a Dolomedes triton (six-spotted fishing spider). Well, that's crazy. What would a fishing spider be doing in my kitchen?

Pisaurina mira
Fishing (?) in the kitchen sink

Then the other morning I found the critter above--same similar markings (though the white strip around the body doesn't show as well in this photo, it was there in life), but bigger, and in a posture I associate with the watery spiders. One difference is in the shape of the marking outlining the body, not the crisp line of the Dolomedes triton, but a more scalloped affair. In the earlier post I mentioned that I thought that this is a familiar spider around the house.....I guess I was right. Familiar yes, in the sense that there are many species in and around the house, and some are vaguely alike. but this one is not Dolomedes triton.

Dolomedes triton is one of the spiders being recorded in Spider WebWatch, so I take this as a sign that I really must sign up and submit the record be more careful when I identify a spider, and not jump to hasty conclusions before 6:00 am (or even later in the day!).

Spider WebWatch

Burning Silo has an excellent post from earlier this year with photos and accounts of a number of quite beautiful spiders in the genus Dolomedes.


And since it's Friday: All aboard the Friday Ark!