Whip Spider

Discuss natural history subjects not strictly related to birds. Reports of interesting mammal, reptile, and invertebrate sightings are welcome.
flossiepip
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Whip Spider

Postby flossiepip » Mon Sep 17, 2018 1:05 pm

Found this wee spider in the garden a few nights ago, got a name Ariamnes triagulatus! or Whip spider but can only find one reference to it for here in NZ. Ariamnes triagulatus Urquhart 1887 New Zealand.
Looks to be male about 1mm wide 10mm long. So if anyone has any more information on it that would be great.
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David Riddell
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Re: Whip Spider

Postby David Riddell » Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:27 am

What a cutie! Had a look in my NZ spider book (Forster and Forster, 1999) and nothing there. Also tried under its old name of Argyrodes triangulatus and again nothing. I see DoC has it down as Data Deficient in its Threat Classification Lists (one of many spiders classified that way - https://www.doc.govt.nz/Documents/getti ... piders.xls), so it looks like this is not at all well known.
flossiepip
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Re: Whip Spider

Postby flossiepip » Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:56 am

Thanks for the info and looking David, tried a few places and asked around but no luck on this one. It would be great to know if we in NZ can count this as a new spider or might just this one of ballooned over from Australia on its own, unlikely I think. Very hard to spot so maybe lots about. Will keep looking and see if a female shows up! :D
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David Riddell
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Re: Whip Spider

Postby David Riddell » Tue Sep 18, 2018 7:57 pm

Hi Flossiepip, as far as I can see Ariamnes triangulatus is a NZ species, looking at that Urquhart 1887 paper (http://rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_ ... 002350.pdf, p.7) it's an original description, and the few other mentions of the species I can find give its range as New Zealand, no mention of Australia that I can see. Says it frequents Leptospermum, and gives Te Karaka as a locality. I'm a bit puzzled though, because Urquhart's illustration (Plate VIII, Fig. 6) shows a spider with a much less elongated abdomen than your one, very like an Argyrodes. The illustration is of a female, but Urquhart says the male's abdomen "does not differ essentially from female in form or coloration".

Looking at some Ariamnes pictures online, some of them definitely look like yours (e.g. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nickadel/22789649421), while others look more like Urquhart's illustration (e.g. https://nature.berkeley.edu/~gillespie/ ... rodes.html - this page also has some elongated ones, and also talks about Argyrodes, but the "A. alepeleke" that is illustrated is an Ariamnes apparently, even though it has an Argyrodes-like abdomen).

Ariamnes triangulatus is the only species in the genus listed in The NZ Inventory of Biodiversity (spelled as Arianme triangulatus).

So in summary, as far as I can make out, your spider definitely definitely looks like an Ariamnes, but it may be some species other than triangulatus, unless that species is more variable than Urquhart realised. So maybe yours is a new record for NZ? There's an Australian species, A. colubrinus, that's supposed to be quite common and could conceivably balloon over, but it looks like it's even more elongated than yours, nor is the colour quite right - http://www.bowerbird.org.au/observations/53345. There's at least one other Australian species, A. flagellum, but that doesn't look quite right either.
flossiepip
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Re: Whip Spider

Postby flossiepip » Tue Sep 18, 2018 10:28 pm

Wow David that's wonderful work, brilliantly researched. You have done far better than I did! I've not seen the Urquhart paper or illustration. How did you find it! I will have to study it carefully and come back on this one. That said and I am no spider expert but the illustrations of 5 and 6 on page 8 seem to be of different spiders and spiders that I know and have images of, which I have posted on iNaturalist NZ! I may post them here! Of cause to confuse things a little there have been some name changes. The spider that I found I believe is Ariamnes but triangulates!!! The one I found was a male the female is the same but twice as long and the one I found could bend its body greatly too! Thanks again for your time and effort. I do believe this could be an exciting spider for New Zealand!
flossiepip
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Re: Whip Spider

Postby flossiepip » Wed Sep 19, 2018 8:17 am

If you have the time David a look at the site- Arachne.org.au under Theridiidae Argyrodes may be of interest to you!
Pat Miller
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Re: Whip Spider

Postby Pat Miller » Wed Sep 19, 2018 1:01 pm

There's a spider that is associated with plants overhanging water, that often falls onto your kayak when pushing through vegetation. It looks very similar in shape to your one flossiepip. Is this the same as your one or another type? It has the same long abdomen and is a similar colour to your one, and is usually quite common when I've come across it, but always associated with water. Just wondering.
Cheerio,
Pat
flossiepip
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Re: Whip Spider

Postby flossiepip » Wed Sep 19, 2018 2:12 pm

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Sounds like a Tettagnatha, Long- jawed orbweaver.
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David Riddell
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Re: Whip Spider

Postby David Riddell » Thu Sep 20, 2018 8:25 am

flossiepip wrote:If you have the time David a look at the site- Arachne.org.au under Theridiidae Argyrodes may be of interest to you!

What a great site - hope we soon have something similar in NZ. I see Landcare Research has guides to three spider families online already and hopefully others will follow - it's getting easier all the time to find info on obscure critters, but there are still some tricky ones!

I found the Urquhart paper by doing a Google search for Ariamnes triangulatus with Country (under the Tools tab in the menu bar that appears under the Search box when the search results are displayed) set to New Zealand. It only gives four results (one of which is this discussion!), including the DoC Threat Classification spreadsheet, and a National Library link to the Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute. That provides a basic HTML display of the paper, with links to images of each individual page. Those images then each have a link to a pdf of the whole paper.

I'm heading down to Gisborne in November, so might see if I can find time to check out some manuka around Te Karaka way. What part of the country did you find yours?
Last edited by David Riddell on Fri Sep 21, 2018 7:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
flossiepip
Posts: 191
Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2011 6:27 pm

Re: Whip Spider

Postby flossiepip » Thu Sep 20, 2018 9:16 am

Great info David and good luck hunting! That Australian spider site is very good and the Au spider photo site linked there has now added NZ which is great news!
I found this spider north of Kaeo in the far north Northland. I will continue to search for an id but I do think that this is a common Australian spices that we now have but hopefully we will find a name!

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