Diptera.info

Posted by Tony Irwin on 12-04-2007 11:51

My beekeeper friend in Portugal found this spider near one of his hives. I suspect it is Eusparassus, but I haven't got any literature to help. Does anyone recognise it? It appears to be a subadult male, body length 20mm

Posted by Dmitry Gavryushin on 12-04-2007 11:58

Looks very much like Eusparassus dufouri @ http://www.flickr...333140630/.

P.S. Platnick cites also E. levantinus, Micrommata ligurina, and Olios argelasius for that region.

Edited by Dmitry Gavryushin on 12-04-2007 12:08

Posted by jorgemotalmeida on 12-04-2007 15:12

wow! Where was found this spider??

It is Eusparassus dufouri - Sparassidae spider.

E. levantinus??? I don?t think so. Take a look in this updated website about spiders in Portugal:

--- www.aranhas.info GO to the ESP?CIES (SPECIES) section and then click in SPARASSIDAE, see below the 4 species known for Portugal. Perhaps Micrommata virescens was misidentified for M. ligurina. We never found by sure M. virescens.
See the distribution map for Eusparassus dufouri. 3 locations known... but I want to know where the spider was found! And when...

Edited by jorgemotalmeida on 12-04-2007 15:15

Posted by Tony Irwin on 12-04-2007 18:07

Thanks Dima and Jorge.
This one seems to be alot further north than the previous records. It was found at Santo Antonio, das Areias, Alentejo, Portalegre. 7.20W, 39.37N.
I think it was found about 10 days ago. It is still alive and sitting in my kitchen now! I'm hoping it will feed and change into an adult soon.

Posted by Tony Irwin on 21-07-2007 17:05

Hi Jorge
This spider has just changed into an adult. Also my friend has brought me a female and two more males - all appear to be dufouri. He has also brought a female Hogma radiata - all are from the same locality, and all collected in the last week.

Posted by jorgemotalmeida on 21-07-2007 19:22

<i>Hogna radiata</i> not Hogma :) But, we must take care... because there is another spider that it is very similar to this... it is <i>Lycosa subhisurta</i>. A friend of mine is reviewing these 2 species.

I saw all sparassids spiders know for Portugal (male and female) but it lack to see precisely E. dufouri!