[SarahK]

Can anyone recommend a good spider ID website? I'm trying to catalogue all the critters which I have taken photos of in my garden and I'm finding it very hard to find good spider pictures to compare. Or is there a fantastic book which will have what I need?

Do spiders have regional variations to make life even more complicated?

If someone could start me off with some help with these I would be most grateful, the second and third pics are the same spider.

[very boring banned member]

Originally Posted by SarahK

Can anyone recommend a good spider ID website?

Britain:
http://www.nicksspiders.com/nicksspiders/main.htm
The Netherlands:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/Spider...thumbnails.htm

Originally Posted by SarahK

Or is there a fantastic book which will have what I need?

Jones D: Spiders of Britain and Northern Europe (The Country Life guide, photographic, good for "instant identification")
Roberts MJ: Spiders of Britain & Northern Europe (Collins field guide, drawings, good for microscope working)

Originally Posted by SarahK

Do spiders have regional variations to make life even more complicated?

Their colours often vary, but they have some typical specific features of dark or bright spots, for example. Misumena vatia is bright white or yellow, Micrommata virescens is bright green.

Originally Posted by SarahK

If someone could start me off with some help with these I would be most grateful, the second and third pics are the same spider.

First one is Pisaura mirabilis. Of the latter ones I am not sure, but their body appears very similar-shaped. I hope someone of the BF old spiders get online soon

[SarahK]

Thanks for the help Karwin, the websites are great, it's good to have more pictures to compare.

The photo I have of Pisaura mirabilis in my small Collins book was not like either of my pictures, but having looked at the websites I would say that the other two pictures are of Pisaura mirabilis too. There does seem to be a lot of variation in the colour from brown to grey in the one species, the grey doesn't even have obvious markings on it's body, but one of the images on the http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/Spider...thumbnails.htm web page is very similar.

Are all spiders this hard? I had enough trouble when I was sorting out all the hoverflies - we had a plague this summer so there were a lot of photos!

[very boring banned member]

Originally Posted by SarahK

Are all spiders this hard?

No they aren't. Some (like the two I mentioned in my post) are very easy. A thing that sometimes confuses people is that female & male spiders often look very different.

[Fuchsia]

Hello and welcome to another spider lover!
I'd say the other one is also Pisaura mirabilis.
I use this website a lot....

http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/Spider...thumbnails.htm

Have fun
Jen :-)