Lurking in a garage

[iainspowart]

Another T. Duellica I think. Quite small - about 10mm body - and very timid. I couldn't get any closer as it retreated into its funnel after a couple of photos.

I hate using flash but I didn't have any choice since it was in a dark corner of my garage. Difficult to make out the eyes at this range and because of the reflections from the flash. I've seen this one before so hopefully I'll be able to get a better photo sometime when there is more light.

Any ID corrections or confirmations gratefully appreciated

Central Scotland, UK

Iain

[alroco]

I would love an ID on this one! We have these all over our yard and occasionally in our windows and I've been wondering what they are. They look like wolf spiders to my very amateur eye but wolf spiders do not do the funnel thing so I'm curious to see what this is!

[Eric]

Mandy *might* be able to help, but I cannot, at least not from this one image.

Eric

[iainspowart]

Not the same specimen but a couple of identical ones also living in the garage.

From everything I've researched I'm pretty sure they're all Tegenaria Duellica.

Are the 'legs' in this photo from a molt or have they been eating each other?

Iain

[Eric]

I suspect the extra legs are leftovers from a molt.

Eric

[iainspowart]

Leftovers from a previous molt

Iain

[Phil]

Another T. Duellica I think. Quite small - about 10mm body - and very timid. I couldn't get any closer as it retreated into its funnel after a couple of photos.

I hate using flash but I didn't have any choice since it was in a dark corner of my garage. Difficult to make out the eyes at this range and because of the reflections from the flash. I've seen this one before so hopefully I'll be able to get a better photo sometime when there is more light.

Any ID corrections or confirmations gratefully appreciated

Central Scotland, UK

Iain

First image could be T. domestica

Juvenile T. duellica can look very much like mature T. domestica at a glance.

I'm not sure the full extent of which Tegenaria spp. you have over there either, I know you got many more then what we have in the states, and this genus can be very tricky, especially for someone not familiar with Scotland's fauna.

What little I do know is you have T. saeva & T. atrica in Scottland as well as T. duellica & T. domestica. T. saeva, T. atrica & T. duellica can be tough to separate from images alone.

T. duellica & T. saeva were actually recorded as the same species till 1975, which just shows how identical the two species likely are. There is also documented hybridisation between the two species, so, makes it even more tricky ^_~!

[iainspowart]

Thanks Phil

Life was definitely easier when I thought there was only one kind of house spider! We get lots of these over here and about the only thing that visually differentiates them is their size.

I guess it's never going to be easy to decide whether individuals are one species or another without catching them and taking them to an expert. Since I don't want to disturb (or kill) them I think I'll settle for calling them all T. domestica!

Iain

[Phil]

Well, you start to see small differences over time, if you watch enough of them. There are many ways they are different. For example they can have different ways of wrapping their egg sac, different terrain preferences, some prefer the wild, fields forests etc.

Just takes patients and a desire to learn. Your other images are not T. domestica, they are one of the others, which very well could be T. duellica

The female in 3rd image, and moult in 2nd image -look- like my T. duellica here in the PNW. Identical to be honest, but still could be any of those, they are so similar and I am really not familiar with your fauna.

Edit to add a picture of one of my T. duellica

[iainspowart]

This is the same female T. duellica from the second image that I posted. Now that she has turned around I can see that she only has six legs - Legs I & II on the right side are gone. Any ideas as to how this might have happened?

It makes me wonder about the 'molted' legs that are to the right in the earlier photo (and just visible at the right of this one). I can't tell how many legs she had in the earlier photo as she's too obscured by the web and the flash creates too many shadows.

Is it also possible that she might be pregnant? Or are they all that large in the abdomen? I'm not sure I want hundreds of these in my garage!

Iain