Sphodros niger photoshoot

[heyjeyniceid]

WithCerberus,

What is your camera and settings for pictures with white backgrounds?

 

[Stylopidae]

Bobby...is that a WC spider?

That seems like a cool pet. I wouldn't mind having one.

 

[WithCerberus]

@evil cheshire- yes this is a WC spider and they do make pretty cool pets. It is awesome to watch them feed. Unfortunately for enthusiast and fortunately for the spiders they are very hard to find. This spider was my holy grail while I was working in Kentucky.

@heyjeyniceid- I used a Pentax Optio S50 5MP set on the super-macro mode to take these pics. The background is just a matte plastic sheet. I did have to clean the pics up with photoshop a bit though.

peace,
Bobby

 

[Malkavian]

how does one go about hunting for those? Just check everywhere that might be a suitable location for a tube?

 

[WithCerberus]

the easiest way is to get your hands on some of the journal articles and go to the places where they have been recorded in the past. Other than that, yeah you pretty much look all over the suitable habitat for a tube. i found the girl in this thread in the mossy bank of a creek.
peace,
Bobby

 

[Stylopidae]

I'm working from a school computer that doesn't have adobe reader, so I can't get the actual article.

I believe this might help with the range (will someone please post and tell me if this species occurrs in Iowa?)

http://www.americanarachnology.org/JoA_tocs/JOA_contents_v14n1.html

It is the second entry under research notes

Another:

http://kaston.transy.edu/spiderlist/atyplist.htm

Another one from this forum that I found while google-bombing

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/printthread.php?t=24124

Not niger (SPHODROS RUFIPES), but in the same genus:

http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?p=...=sphodros+niger&d=VPuDzG1aMQHE&icp=1&.intl=us

 

[WithCerberus]

I checked the 1980 Gertsch and Platnick paper and at the time of the article none of the Sphodros species had been collected in Iowa. Iowa does seem to be in the range of S.niger and S.fitchi though. I wouldn't be surprized ifsome have popped up since that paper.

peace,
Bobby