Linyphiinae

[Phil]

Neriene litigiosa - Sierra Dome Spider?

[arlo]

Could be - why don't you give us a geo location?

[Phil]

Sorry Arlo! Usually Mandy answers the tougher ones for me and she knows my geo

Pierce county, Buckley, WA.

The actual spider is poor quality. For some reason I could not get this gal in focus. Took like 50 images and these were the best 3 lol. The morphology is consistent with N. litigiosa but I don't have any data on what time of year they mature and make their large domes, nor am I aware of any copycats in my region.

[Mandy]

(Sorry for being so slow to get responses out lately.) Excellent shot showing the whole web! I love ones like that! We'll have to ask you about adding it to one of our species guides when we eventually do one for Neriene.

I think you're probably right with Neriene litigiosa. It's definitely Neriene, based on that distinctive web, and WA only has N. digna, N. litigiosa, and N. radiata... it's for sure not N. digna based on what I can see (their web is different, too), and though I can't absolutely rule out a female N. radiata from the images, that species would be pretty rare around here, so I think N. litigiosa is the best bet.

It wouldn't hurt to see the spider close up to see if there's anything that might change my mind, though, just in case...