Is That A Spider I See Before Me?

Sometimes I stagger myself at how hopeless I am. Yes, I'm absolutely hopeless when it comes to identifying what turns out to be a common species in the garden, if only I knew. 

It being a lovely sunny morning I opted to take my elevenses and computer break out in the garden, sit on the bench and absorb some warm rays on the aged physique. However my allocated fifteen minutes screen break became a little longer than planned. Poised on the bench with a beverage of choice it was while reading the newly pushed through the letterbox Spring edition of Butterfly (Butterfly Conservation's Members' Mag) that I became aware of tiny spiders lurking on the shed. Not one or two, but dozens. Turning my attention away from thoughts of a summer trip to see the newly re-introduced chequered skipper, I got down on my hands and knees to have a closer look. They were everywhere, I counted over forty.  Less than 1cm in length I notice they were only on the sunniest side of the shed, always low down, or on the gravel, and by and large remained motionless for extended periods. But now and again one would dart towards another, they'd rush together then before meeting veer off before resuming a sun kissed posture well away from each other. Interesting to observe. 

Viewed with the naked eye they looked uniformly velvety black, no distinctive markings. However after taking some images and looking at these lovely spiders close up, they have quite distinctive markings, although I didn't know what these spiders were. Some sort of hunting spider I suspected given their rapid movement, but exactly which species, not a clue.  They were exquisite to watch close up and not intimidated by my presence at all. After half an hour I had to haul myself back indoors and to work, but over lunchtime I had a go at identification based on my photographs, as by now they'd disappeared. Well that hour went well.

My Boys Book of creepy crawlies was no help, neither the i-Spy book of arachnids. I was stumped, nothing came close, even flicking through the Spider recording webpages I wasn't really seeing what I had seen. So I posted onto Facebook and two of my friends on there got back. Brett, probably the best naturalist around, replied,

"these are probably Pardosa species...the wolf spiders that appear early in spring. Hard to ID from photos alone but the commonest in most gardens is Pardosa amentata."

While Richard who knows Brett and one of the best entomologists in the UK, added;

"As Brett says, Pardosa sp. - they're variable and hard to ID so basically impossible without checking specimens under a microscope.

What I later discovered is that this investigation to species level under a microscope involves close examination of genitalia. Presumably (and hopefully) just the spider's.

Doing lots of reading around on the web, two species stand out for consideration. My hot to trot pick is Pardosa pullata, very common and widespread with records of adults starting in March. Or, as Brett mentioned, Pardosa amentata, which is the commonest Pardosa in gardens.  Certainly looking at what seemed hundreds of images of these two species, they are really variable, and I was warned on-line identification is often serious misidentification. Either are likely, though I guess I'll never be absolutely sure which species.

It was while reading through details of various Pardosa species that I came across Pardosa purbeckensis, described as, rare, local, but numerous in suitable coastal habitat; though there seems to be a raging discussion as to whether P purbeckensis  is actually a coastal living P agrestis. Oh lordy, I can't even identify the common ones. What seems evident however is that looking at regional maps, one of the small numbers of places P purbeckensis is allegedly found is on the coast just over the fields from me. So as well as popping to Northamptonshire for the chequered skipper this summer, I need to walk to the coast. It'll be easy to identify, the only spider wearing Speedos and carrying a beach towel. Even I couldn't get that one wrong.

All I know is that I like not knowing what I'm seeing. We all learn from a little bit of observation, a little bit of brain work, and of course knowing a few experts who can guide me out of the fog. That said, my thirty minutes watching the antics of these largely sedentary spiders was most entertaining. What the genera don't seem to have are common names, other than wolf spiders. So I'm naming my observed forty individuals of this species, The Friday Elevenses Spider. Catchy and certainly caught the moment!