Possible Australian Spider - ID please

thedreadedone · Nov 1, 2005

this spider was brought into the zoo today, it possibly arrived in the UK with surfboards from australia
its tiny - maybe 1cm including legs, the body is about 3mm long
unfortunately, the photo here is the best i could get

thanks in advance

(NB. it may be a british species, but they think it came off one of the surfboards)

Spaceman_Spiff · Nov 1, 2005

I think an accurate ID of your spider from this photo is impossible, but my guess is that it's some sort of Theridiidae, a male one.
I think it's more likely to be a native species.
Steatoda species are often found in houses or in storage rooms, S. triangulosa is very common and looks a bit like the spider pictured!

greets
Bernhard

Venom · Nov 1, 2005

I can't tell for sure, but it bears some resemblance to an immature Badumna insignis ( Black window / black house spider ), which is endemic to Australia. Like he said though, that's not a 100% sure, guaranteed ID.

edit: some links:

http://www.spiderzrule.com/black.htm

http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/australian/laceweb/laceweb.html

NRF · Nov 1, 2005

Looks like Steatoda bipunctata, native to UK. If you could enlarge the picture it would help.

thedreadedone · Nov 2, 2005

thanks for the replies

to me, it now looks like a Steatoda nobilis as seen here http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ray.hamblett1/nature/spiders.html

(scroll down the page)

Possible Australian Spider - ID please

thedreadedone

Arachnoknight

Spaceman_Spiff

Arachnoknight

Venom

Arachnoprince

NRF

Arachnoknight

thedreadedone

Arachnoknight