crab spiders

[Lisa Baines]

good point. And I think I will opt for the survival of the fittest option in this case, they are pretty much doing that anyway!

Hope we can get a positive ID soon. I'll let them get a little bigger then get a pic on here. Had a closer look at one of the biggest today and it has a bit of faint tiger striping to the abdomen - dont know if that will help narrow things down. Still got white bodies though

[Thomas Pitchford]

Is it actually a stripe or the beginnings of some indentations in the spider's body? Most crab spiders I can picture are solid in colour. So far have their abdomens been perfectly round in shape or are they a bit trinagular? And can you see any formation around the eyes? I do apologise - I know you didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition, we are all just terribly curious.

As you've said, you are probably going to have to wait for some more development before being sure about anything, but, with your permission, if I were to email two or three people I know could probably id the little critters, would you be willing to pop a few in some little specimen tubes and send them off? As a bonus, by way of Steven's very correct and cautious warning, if they were a British species, you could release them.

[Lisa Baines]

If they are british they might be Philodromus sp. Just took some pictures and the tigerish marks are actuallt just dark hairs... dont ya just love macro lenses!
Anyway sorry for the poorish quality of the pictures I need to get a desktop tripod. But they are clear enough to get a good amount of detail. more on them than I first thoght.

As for sending some off that's not a problem. Just PM the details to me. I'd rather know what they are as soon as, So I know what to do with them.

[Thomas Pitchford]

A publisher's sales rep has just left the library selling me some new titles, one of which was a wildlife of Britain book. There were two to three very nice pages on spiders with great photography and very good data. You can imagine my surprise when I located the block regarding crab spiders and it pictured about seven to eight different species including one that looked like it had tiger stripes on its abdomen. The abdomen is also rather hexagonal in shape rather than perfectly round or triangular. So, there is the chance you have a load of xysticus cristatus. But I will still get in touch those contacts and get an expert evaluation. I now can't wait to get home and look up the name in my other guides and read more about them.

[Lisa Baines]

what a stroke of luck hahaha! I actually looked at a picture of them earlier, also another possibility.

[Steven Williams]

I've just been given a beautiful yellow (at the moment) Misumena vatia. When I have the chance to take some photos I'll post them on here so Lisa can see how big (small in tarantula terms) they get!

Steven

[Lisa Baines]

fantastic, cant wait to see

[Steven Williams]

Here we are.





These are the best I could do. This is a mature female Misumena vatia and is about 12mm long in 'real life'. M.vatia is thought to be the largest of the British crab spiders.

Steven

[Lisa Baines]

erm.. right... either my web browser has spat it's dummy out or I really cant see the links!!!!

[Steven Williams]

Mine now has the photos up.

Steven

[Lisa Baines]

nope still cant see them lol!

[Craig Mackay]

I can't see them either.

[Steven Williams]

Hmmm. I've still got them. This is a pain. I'm a bit busy today so I'll try again (if I can use another format) over the weekend. Sorry guys.

Steven

[Thomas Pitchford]

For what it is worth, I rarely see ANY posted pictures but I have always blamed that on the school's website "protection" devices (don't get me started - they just blocked the Internet Movie Database!!!). I have found a few FAQ's on the forum about posting images, but I'm sure there can possibly be more issues than those addressed. Should this be emailed as an enquiry or started as a new thread??

[Grant Brown]

I've never had any issue with posting photos here. Have you tried linking the URLs from photobucket or similar instead?