Spider ID and other questions

Tostamix

Arachnopeon
Joined
May 15, 2017
Messages
2
Hello!

I found this little guy in the middle of a road near a crowded beach off the coast of Portugal and. I think I should have just moved it to the dunes but at the time I thought it just got there by accident so I brought it home with me.
Torso + head lenght is about 1.5cms and the legs are maybe 1cm long so it looks like a jumping spider.
The thing is I tried feeding it a moth and a couple of flies but it doesn't seem to be interested in them. It does drink water though. I rolled a small cotton ball and drench it with water often and I can see it drinking.

Could you help me identify this spider?
Also, any idea why she doesn't eat fresh bugs?

Thanks in advance

Edit: now that I think about it i'm not entirely sure it is a jumping spider because it's not half as fast or agile as other jumping spiders i've seen.
 

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aaarg

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 26, 2013
Messages
176
It could be an Eresidae (perhaps Eresus albopictus), but those are spiders that don't exist in North America so idk. They kinda have jumping-spider-like head shapes, but with little beady eyes.
Beautiful find! Love those legs.
 

Ungoliant

Malleus Aranearum
Staff member
Joined
Mar 7, 2012
Messages
4,096
Could you help me identify this spider?
Naturdata has this image of an Eresus from Portugal that looks exactly like your spider. Unfortunately, it doesn't identify the species.

Eresidae are commonly known as "velvet spiders."


Also, any idea why she doesn't eat fresh bugs?
One of our forum members, @basin79, has a pet eresidid that belongs to a different genus. Based on his videos, I can see that they are cribellate spiders that use a web to catch prey.

If you want to keep this one as a pet, I would set it up in an enclosure that is suitable for webbing and wait until it has built a web before offering prey.
 

Tostamix

Arachnopeon
Joined
May 15, 2017
Messages
2
Thank you for the replies.

I have built a small enclousure about 15x15 cms with a few dry branches inside for webbing but the spider tries climbing out instead of building webs. The only webs I see are on the surface.
 

schmiggle

Arachnoking
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
2,220
I'm going to say Eresus albopictus or E. felisoculi. It's very difficult to find information about the latter, and I'm not sure it's widely accepted as an actual species.
 
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