Texas Master Naturalist Convention

I used my free time to check out a number of locations around the lakes in the DFW area. I used google maps satellite view to select promising spots in advance. I found lapidicina group spiders in every location I was able to access. I found no compelling reason to think any were not P. mercurialis although there was quite a range in appearance. The most exciting one was a male I found on the riprap beside the boat ramp in Riversbend Park on the way home. The park is on Stillhouse Hollow Lake in Bell County. The spider was jet black with a few patches of white hair. The tibiae and especially the meta tarsi and tarsi were orange. See iNat 99617871. Although dark forms appear among most lapidicina group species, I've never seen one this dark let alone get a a good series of images. I'd highly recommend the shores of that lake. There are multiple accessible locations in parks and alongside boat ramps and only a few people around. There were other Pardosa species, Tigrosa, and Arctosa too. P. mercurialis was in the rockiest places. I had to do a lot of rock flipping to find them since they weren't out and about in the early afternoon. In all I had 28 observations to upload.

Posted on 28 October, 2021 12:56 by eaneubauer