Please ID this Phiddipus
Andy00

Please ID this Phiddipus

Found in Boulder, Colorado
@Ungoliant thanks so much! Would've taken me a long time. How'd u do that so fast? haha. Also if you look closely, he has 4 spikes (2 pairs) on his front legs. I was wondering what they are since I've never seen that before. I'm guessing te to help the male mate just like tibial hooks on theraphosidae
 
@Andy00 If I don't immediately recognize a species, one thing I try is logging into BugGuide (this function is only available when logged in) and clicking data on a genus or family to see submissions from a particular state. In your case, I viewed all Phidippus submissions from Colorado and quickly found one that looked similar.

I'm not sure what those spikes are. Maybe, like you said, they play some role during courtship or mating. The Phidippus tyrrellii pictures on BugGuide aren't sufficiently in focus to see if females or juveniles have them. (If they all have the spikes, that would suggest they're not analogous to tibial hooks on tarantulas.)

Another possibility is that they're just large spines, which may play some sensory role.
 
@Ungoliant I guess I'll have to search for more and see if juveniles or females of this species have the spikes. I just found this guy up on my bedroom ceiling and I've never seen this species before so I guess it was luck and I'd have to be very lucky to see another. Do you know if any other salticidae species have the "spikes" too? It would be interesting to see what their purpose is if not for mating.
 
@Andy00 I don't know that off the top of my head, but many spiders have spines that are basically thickened setae.

I would also submit those images to BugGuide, as they show some angles that are not represented there.

Once you post the first image, you can click "add image" on your image page to link them together as different shots of the same individual.
 

Media information

Category
Other Spiders
Added by
Andy00
Date added
View count
756
Comment count
5
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Image metadata

Device
SONY ILCE-6000
Exposure time
1/250
ISO
320
Flash
Off, did not fire
Filename
IMG_1607.JPG
File size
1,008.5 KB
Date taken
Mon, 07 August 2017 6:38 PM
Dimensions
5181px x 3453px

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