I found this spider in my post box a little while back, and was wondering what kind it is. The body size was around 5mm (I think). Follow the link for a larger photo.
(PS. Dave, could you change the thread name to "Garden insect identification"?)
I found this spider in my post box a little while back, and was wondering what kind it is. The body size was around 5mm (I think). Follow the link for a larger photo.
(PS. Dave, could you change the thread name to "Garden insect identification"?)
Hmm. Poses a problem - arachnids are not insects. Two too many legs.
For me it gets better - I've just discovered I don't have an ID book on spiders.
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It looks like the spider is a brown widow spider (commonly known as a brown button spider in South Africa). I happened to find another one in my braai (female with larger abdoment), and decided to find out what it was. I suspect that it is a male in the photo.
Interesting distribution. Apart from the lack of origon, wikipedia is talking about tropical areas. Capetown is not exactly tropical!
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Did you have a look at the second link? It has distribution maps for the various button spiders in South Africa. Of the two brown types, the only one that is indicated for this area is the L. Geometricus, which is actually an alien species. The Geometricus also has quite a distinct egg sack (lots of little spikes on it, there is a photo on wikipedia), which I found attached the the braai cover.
Hey Duncan,
Like your photos - some of them really cool.
Garth
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Thanks, I'm trying to take more and hopefully improve my skills a bit - posting regularly to flickr helps me to keep focussed.
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