Pardosa lapidicina group's Journal

I recently got back from a 6 day trip which went as far as Presidio and included 42 fruitful stops along the way. The main objective was to see what kind of lapidicina group spiders were out there. The Rio Grande along both Big Bend parks apparently hosts Pardosa sura. This isn't a well documented species in Texas as it was merged into P. sierra from 1959 to 2010. The original type specimens have been lost, so it's hard to tell if the original P. sura is really the same as the 2010 version. I'm basing my ID on it being where sura should be, not being any other species known to be there, and having some unique traits by which it can be recognized. It was the only lapidicina group species I found in the immediate area. It prefers beaches and bars made of river rocks. I found both males and females as well as juveniles. One female was huge suggesting an advanced age. She had a healthy bunch of spiderlings along for the ride. I doubt I've run across one that old before, and it was interesting to see she had acquired some typically male attributes including loss of leg banding, general darkening, and more pale hairs on her body. Unfortunately there are quite a few stands of giant reed along the river which crowd both the spiders and the fishermen into a shrinking area, so there probably aren't as many spiders on the Rio Grande as in the past. I made stops on the Frio and Pedernales Rivers on the way back and found lots of lapidicina group spiders. There appeared to be multiple species present, as well as some of the lesser Pardosa. It will take a while to work through all the photos. When I'm done, I'll upload the iNat observations.

It seems worth getting ventral views of the lapidicina species group as the presumed sura has a dark sternum with a much pale outer ring. This refers to the exoskeleton colors as the entire sternum is covered with pale hairs. P. valens appears to have black femora ventrally with a small section of yellow near the distal end and a narrow black ring at the distal end. This is true for both sexes. Males above are black above with most of the carapace bare. The abdomen and edges of the carapace are covered with pale hairs. The female is brown above with a typical pattern faintly visible. Because of the more extensive black on the fermora exoskeleton, the most noticeable leg banding is on the tibia and none on the femur. Also, the top of the trochanter is entirely black. P. mercurialis and vadosa are lighter, and I haven't figured out how to tell them apart consistently. They appear to be easy to differentiate from the other Texas species.

The real test of these P. valens field criteria will be to see if spiders in other parts of their range have the same characteristics. Unfortunately, there just aren't enough observations yet, especially those with ventral views.