Yet another spider identification thread...this one eats other spiders.

[xhexdx]

I've caught three or four of these in the house over the last couple months. Tried feeding roaches and crickets with no luck. Decided to throw in one of the common 'house spiders' that have invaded my Florida room, and what do you know...

(I know the pictures are huge...I wanted to get as much detail as I could when I uploaded them)

DLS is ~1", and I'm in Florida.

Thanks in advance for any help identifying this sucker.

 

[davisfam]

Hii. The specimen posted in this thread looks much like a "Longlegged Sac Spider" belonging to the Genus Cheiracanthium. We're not exactly sure on a species from quick glance but here is a link with some photos and information that might prove to be helpful. Good Luck!!

Information: http://bugguide.net/node/view/3383

Photo's: http://bugguide.net/node/view/3383/bgimage

 

[loxoscelesfear]

Southern house spider (Kukulcania hibernalis)

 

[catfishrod69]

looks like a female black widow that you are feeding him...

 

[davisfam]

Southern house spider (Kukulcania hibernalis)

- What makes you think this specimen is a K. hibernalis? We live in central FL and we've found tons of specimens that were Southern House spidiies but they def. didn't look like the specimen posted within this thread.

Our Southern House Spiders look like this;

- We've never come across any of the K. hibernalis that resemble the brown-ish tan coloration as most of those specimens are found in states such as TN, TX, VI, etc. (via BugGuide.net photo's)

looks like a female black widow that you are feeding him...

- We thought the same and then once we looked closer at the pictures, it looks more like a species of Steatoda ("False Widow") which are EVERYwhere down here in Florida!

 

[loxoscelesfear]

eye pattern is wrong for Cheiracanthium. looks like a southern house spider eye pattern to me. males and freshly molted specimens can be a tannish- yellow color. i could be wrong though, wouldn't be the first time.

 

[xhexdx]

- We thought the same and then once we looked closer at the pictures, it looks more like a species of Steatoda ("False Widow") which are EVERYwhere down here in Florida!

That, and there's no hourglass...

It's a Steatoda.

I'm still open to suggestions for what this is. Please continue to discuss as well, it's very interesting to me since I'm not a true spider guy.

 

[Galapoheros]

Wow that's pretty weird, I don't know what it is but thanks for the pics. Hope that helps haha.

 

[jsloan]

Try posting the first and third pictures to BugGuide.net and you'll have a good chance of getting at least a genus ID. Crop the pictures to show only the spider.

 

[davisfam]

eye pattern is wrong for Cheiracanthium. looks like a southern house spider eye pattern to me. males and freshly molted specimens can be a tannish- yellow color. i could be wrong though, wouldn't be the first time.

Well, as far as the eye arrangement, we would have to lean towards the Family Gnaphosidae instead of Cheiracanthium; our mistake on not taking a closer look at the pictures. Although, we're still not sure on a species or 100% on the specimen being from that Family but we'll keep looking around once we get some free time!

Photo's of the "Eye Arrangement/Pattern"
Gnaphosidae: http://bugguide.net/node/view/160851

 

[revilo]

hi all,

i'm not used with your species of the mentioned genera, so maybe i'm wrong...

but the specimen on the pics is a female and here in europe we don't have gnaphosidae with legs long as this in females (so far i know, but i don't know every european spp. in this genus...). but maybe this is an adaption on it's feeding behavior, in case it's a gnaphosidae ?!

to me it's a little bit hard to speak about the eye arrangement, because the pics are very shiny in this region !
maybe it's possible to take one more better shut of this ?!

cheers, oli

 

[Silberrücken]

Hi all.

First off.. the spider being eaten is a Nesticodes rufipes...

Second, the spider in question is not a K. hibernalis...

Link to my albums of K. hibernalis, all found on my house in NE Florida-

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7979&id=100001761769919&l=9695277c23

Here can be seen the color phases of K. hibernalis... black, grey, brown, tan. All are females, except the last few pics, which are of a male.

As for the actual ID of xhexdx's spider? I have no idea... yet

S.

PS-xhexdx, can you tell us where in your house was this spider found? High on the wall, low near floor, in a web, no web, in what room? Believe it or not, these details help in a positive ID...

 

[catfishrod69]

i aint sure what it is, but what you say it is, is what it is...youve confirmed for me alot.....:worship:

Hi all.

First off.. the spider being eaten is a Nesticodes rufipes...

Second, the spider in question is not a K. hibernalis...

Link to my albums of K. hibernalis, all found on my house in NE Florida-

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7979&id=100001761769919&l=9695277c23

Here can be seen the color phases of K. hibernalis... black, grey, brown, tan. All are females, except the last few pics, which are of a male.

As for the actual ID of xhexdx's spider? I have no idea... yet

S.

PS-xhexdx, can you tell us where in your house was this spider found? High on the wall, low near floor, in a web, no web, in what room? Believe it or not, these details help in a positive ID...

 

[xhexdx]

The specimen pictured was found on the ceiling in the kitchen, but I have another that was on the floor. No webs - the looks like wanderers.

I'll try to get some better pics of the eyes.

 

[Silberrücken]

i aint sure what it is, but what you say it is, is what it is...youve confirmed for me alot.....:worship:

Thank you, catfishrod69!

@ xhexdx- eagerly looking forward to the new pics! I have a very good idea what your spider is, but I want to see your next pics first. I love a challenge, but I try not to be so quick with ID's til I'm SURE.

*back to researching*

S.

 

[Galapoheros]

Sorry I still can't help on the ID, but I may have found one too. I don't know, maybe it will help somehow. I don't really think so but maybe the same genus? It was a male, he's roaming the house again, I let him go but took some pics. I also took a vid and look, you can see the heart beat in the abdomen.

http://s146.photobucket.com/albums/r264/galapoheros/?action=view&current=A003-20110115_005224.mp4

 

[revilo]

hi,

am i right and you can see there only 6 eyes and NOT 8 ?!

in case there are really only 6 eyes i will tend to a positive id in the family Dysderidae !

from two european genera in this family i know that they often hunt on other spiders and one of this genera is Harpactea. this genus is fitting from habitus and from prefered food almost on yours, but only with a little bit more oval shape of carapace, less round than yours. so in case yours have 6 eyes i'm quiet sure with the family id. you will have more genera in your countrys than we have here over europe, i think.
a research in this direction is maybe leading to a positive species id.

the mentioned genera/family have a lot of temperament, slightly aggressive...

cheers, oli

p.s.: nice vid !

 

[Galapoheros]

I considered the same but I feel I see 8 eyes on both specimens. Oh yeah the vid, I noticed I could not see the heart beat like I could in the original vid, I guess there is some downsizing in resolution or something with the download but you can still see it.

 

[revilo]

hi,

after a little research in platnick i recognized that only a few single species out of this family are common in the nearctic region.
so in one hand this makes chance less that i was right with my guess, but in the other hand you have a lot of invaders - maybe one more...

but like galapoheros said i'm not sure with 6 eyes on the pics - only to me it looks like...

please count the eyes, 'cause i'm excited now to know what we have

---------- Post added at 05:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:50 AM ----------

btw: galapoheros is your species the same as this from xhexdx ??

 

[Tarantula_Hawk]

I'm pretty sure it's not a Dysderidae. Apart from the fact that i can honestly count 8 eyes, all six eyed spiders have six eyes because they miss the AM eyes which in this specimen are clearly present and are the largest of all.
What i do see, however, are irregularly shaped PM eyes (or are they rounded?), which would place this spider in the Gnaphosoidea. The only two families belonging to this group in USA are Gnaphosidae and Prodidomidae. Since all Prodidomidae are distinguished by a strongly procurved posterior eye row (not the case in this one), this spider might be a Gnaphosidae.
However im not 100% convinced. The overall habitus would be unusual for a gnaphosid and it doesnt seem to have neither scopulae nor claw tufts (present in all Gnaphosidae). Does it climb glass?. Also the spinnerets dont quite convince me.

A second guess would be Corinnidae primarily because of the ocular disposition (slightly larger AM eyes, and a slightly procurved posterior eye row) and the possible absence of claw tufts. But this doesnt really convince me either.

You gave us a hard one, i'll give you that.
Give us more pics if you can.