Diptera.info

Posted by Juergen Peters on 27-03-2009 01:43

Hello, Roger!

Roger Thomason wrote:
Found under a plant pot in the garden...this spider was about 3mm head to tail. Possible to give it a name?

Difficult... Most likely one of the many small Linyphiidae species. One of the most numerous in our garden and around the house (also in the wintergarden and sometimes in the house) is the most synanthropic Tenuiphantes tenuis (female). But that is only a guess, the different species are very variable in colouration: http://www.spider...hantes.htm
Most species are adult from late autumn to early spring.

Edited by Juergen Peters on 27-03-2009 01:43

Posted by Roger Thomason on 27-03-2009 04:39

Hi Juergen...Tenuiphantes tenuis looks good enough for me. I have it on my checklist under Lepthyphantes tenuis.
How do you keep coming up with these determinations?
Still very few flies here....got gales and hail/snow forecast for the week-end, so I reckon I'll be lifting stones/flowerpots for a bit longer to find insects :|.
Regards Roger

Edited by Roger Thomason on 27-03-2009 05:09

Posted by Juergen Peters on 27-03-2009 06:22

Hello, Roger!

Roger Thomason wrote:
Tenuiphantes tenuis looks good enough for me. I have it on my checklist under Lepthyphantes tenuis.

Yes, that's the old name. The large "container" genus Lepthyphantes was split up into several genera some time ago. Recently only four or five european species still belong to the original genus.

How do you keep coming up with these determinations?

We have a good german spider forum, you remember (though not always so helpful on Amaurobius... ;))? And the maintainer of the german spider checklist (also available in English: http://www.spider...ex_eng.htm, with a photo gallery) I know for years now. He is very active in determining and recording the spiders and harvestmen here.

Still very few flies here....got gales and hail/snow forecast for the week-end, so I reckon I'll be lifting stones/flowerpots for a bit longer to find insects :|.

Two days ago we also had a "snow chaos" nearly all over Germany. Not so severe here in the northwest (we only had 5 cm), but today it is raining and raining and raining... I hope the weather will become better next week (at least the forecast tells of a slight upswing...). I have not been out on a photo excursion since March-21... :|

Posted by Roger Thomason on 27-03-2009 11:36

Thanks for Website Juergen, I'll run the spiders on my checklist against it to gave me an idea of what I'm looking for. Well that's me for a couple of days till I'm allowed another thread here. Odd, I put in a picture of a spider and get (to date) 88 hits. Put in a fly and get (to date) 26 hits, and this is a diptera site? Funny old world, as somebody once said....Regards Roger

In the time it took to type this reply it has risen to 94 hits....people must like spiders....can't stand them myself...got a phobia about insects in general...now that is strange.

Edited by Roger Thomason on 27-03-2009 11:42