# Spider identification!



## Placeboani2 (May 4, 2012)

I recently went on a trip to The Gambia with University.
Sadly it was the end of the dry season so there were not many spiders around.
I found a few that I could not identify.
I have pictures of one, which i will attach (Sorry about the quality of the pictures, i didn't know how to work my camera settings at the time)
View attachment 103005

View attachment 103006

View attachment 103007

View attachment 103008


I also have a couple of exoskeletons that I found in Bijilo forest. I will try and get some good pictures of them and post them later for identification.


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## Ciphor (May 4, 2012)

All your attachments are invalid and don't show any images.


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## Placeboani2 (May 5, 2012)

Sorry about the pictures not working, Lets hope they let me post links..
This is spider number one..
http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/p553/amculck/DSCN0104.jpg
http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/p553/amculck/DSCN0103.jpg

(Sorry for the bad pictures)

This is the exoskeleton which were everywhere in Bijilo forest, i brought two back with me.

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/p553/amculck/photo-44.jpg

When i originally saw them my first thought was wolf spiders?
What do you think?


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## jbm150 (May 5, 2012)

The exo looks like a Heteropoda venatoria

Reactions: Like 1


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## The Snark (May 5, 2012)

jbm150 said:


> The exo looks like a Heteropoda venatoria


A male at that??
H Venatoria male (I'm told)


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## Placeboani2 (May 5, 2012)

Yeah it looks alot like a Heteropoda venatoria! Thanks! I had a "spiders of the Gambia" book alot of the spiders I saw were not there so I struggled with identification. Any idea what the first picture is? Thanks again!


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## The Snark (May 5, 2012)

I'm going to go out on a limb here as I'm not a pro at identifying, I just live with H Venatoria running all over our house. All three pics appears to be the same. The first two seem to have optical distortion making the legs look thicker than they really are. The black markings on the back of H Venatoria, as seen in your shots and mine are very distinctive. Essentially, my rule of thumb is those markings, usually leave their legs splayed out as in my pic, and often found quite a bit larger than a 2 inch leg span (mine is 4 to 5 inches), it is probably a H Venatoria. The male is slightly smaller than the female and it's abdomen is significantly smaller. It is also usually somewhat lighter in color.
Here is H Venatoria female with egg sack, 6 to 7 inch leg span


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## Silberrücken (May 6, 2012)

*To the OP: these













are Wolf spiders, as you suspect. Beyond that, I can't tell you more.*


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## terancheped42 (May 6, 2012)

looks like wolf spiders to me cant really say much more then that


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## Ciphor (May 7, 2012)

First two look like a male wolf spider in the genus _Rabidosa_ but can't be certain.

The exoskeleton does look like a _H. venatoria_


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## Ageto (May 26, 2017)

I hope this is the right place. 

I saw this spider in my apartment in Los Angeles, CA. Took photos and let it go. 
When I googled, it seemed to be a Hobo Spider, which sucks because I wish I killed it now...

Can anyone please identify the spider on the photos? (Sorry for the bad quality).


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## The Snark (May 26, 2017)

Well, it's not agresti, and they are harmless anyway. (They aren't in the LA area.) But it does look Eratigena. Someone here will nail it down.

(The Hobo, Aggressive House Spider is a myth. The name Hobo was an unscientific term given the fact it is a displaced wanderer probably imported from England and first described in the US in locations near the Seattle shipping ports.
The name aggressive is pushed by pest control companies. The Agresti in it's name (Eratigena Agresti) is properly translated as 'of the fields' from Latin.)
Trivia: The eggheads are duking it out over the identification of the Agelenid family. Eratigena is an anagram of it's former genus, Tegenaria.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Ungoliant (May 26, 2017)

Definitely _Eratigena_.

Do you know how large it was (body length)? _Eratigena atrica_ (giant house spider) tends to be larger than _Eratigena agrestis_ (hobo spider). These can be difficult to distinguish from photos, although it can be done with a ventral (underside) image.

However, regardless of which species it is, it's not medically significant, as has been mentioned. For additional information, see this post.


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## Ageto (May 26, 2017)

Ungoliant said:


> Definitely _Eratigena_.
> 
> Do you know how large it was (body length)? _Eratigena atrica_ (giant house spider) tends to be larger than _Eratigena agrestis_ (hobo spider). These can be difficult to distinguish from photos, although it can be done with a ventral (underside) image.
> 
> However, regardless of which species it is, it's not medically significant, as has been mentioned. For additional information, see this post.


I would guess the body was around 2cm long. With the legs it was probably 6-7cm. 
It was running as soon as it saw me, which seems to be the case for Eratigena.


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## The Snark (May 26, 2017)

Ungoliant said:


> For additional information, see this post.


(Wish I knew of your post before I typed my crud. Too easy to forget the often frustrating search function)


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## Ungoliant (May 26, 2017)

The Snark said:


> (Wish I knew of your post before I typed my crud. Too easy to forget the often frustrating search function)


I was going to copy and paste it here, but the reply function strips out all of my internal quotes, and I didn't feel like reformatting the quotes.


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## Daniel Tveit (Sep 9, 2017)

Came a cross this beauty, anybody know the name of this?
The picture was taken in Norway, along the coast, and it was in the under brush.

*EDIT* please delete this post, the picture attachment was too much of a hazzle.


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