Agelenopsis sp.??

[advan]

I found two of these on the banks of the St. Croix river in Afton State park, MN amongst dozens of the common Agelenopsis sp. that we encountered. I am not good with trues at all. Any help would be much appreciated. -Chad

 

[Ciphor]

Agelenids of this type can be some of the toughest to tell apart, that is for sure. I suspect your spider here is actually a Barronopsis sp. but there is no way me or anyone else can be conclusive from any image alone. The problem is, there are many species of Agelenidae that are not well documented, and many we have no image examples of, simply sketches of the genitalia.

---------- Post added 09-05-2012 at 04:57 PM ----------

I sent the image to a friend who is also pretty sharp on Agelenids, and she said that she also feels this is Barronopsis based on the carapace markings. Agelenopsis spp. tend to have very sharp defined/unbroken lines on the carapace, while Barronopsis spp. have very rough edge lines (almost like a starburst) that are less clean in appearance.

Barronopsis carapace with rough lines: http://bugguide.net/node/view/96212/bgimage
Agelenopsis carapace with clean lines: http://bugguide.net/node/view/600664/bgimage

Still cannot say conclusively, but about 99% certain it is Barronopsis.

 

[advan]

Thank you Ciphor! I wasn't thinking I was going to be able to get an ID down to the species just hopefully at least the genus. I was a little skeptical on it being Agelenopsis, which you cleared up quite nicely! Nice little spider none the less! Thanks! -Chad

 

[RobynTRR]

Beautiful spider!