This section of the website contain a growing list of individual pages to aid identification of all those species which are on the current British spider checklist but are not included in the original three volume book 'The Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland' by the late Michael Roberts and published by Harley Books in 1985/7. In addition species will be added that have established in Britain since the publication of the current spider checklist.
N.B. There is also a page for the spider Enoplognatha oelandica correcting an error in Roberts (Harley Books). The male palp illustrated there was not that of E. oelandica but from a different species. This error was noted and corrected by Michael Roberts in his Collins Field guide.
Each page is a pdf file; you are welcome to download or print these for personal use (they can be inserted in a copy of the Michael Roberts' book at an appropriate place). The drawings shown of epigynes and palps are not to scale and are intended to show the shape and key features only. For scale it may be helpful to look at drawings for closely related species where these exist.
If you are unable to identify a spider using the standard works by Roberts or by Locket and Millidge it is sometimes helpful to look at some of the images and photographs on two European websites:
If you are unfamiliar with an illustrator's drawings it is worth looking to see how they draw species that you are familiar with. Every illustrator has a style. Many drawings of palps and epigynes are from alcohol-preserved specimens. Live specimens in a spi-pot and in photographs may look rather different.
More species will inevitably be added to the British list. Pages to aid their identification will be included here as soon as information and drawings are available.
Pholcidae
- Holocnemus pluchei
Oonopidae
Oecobidae
Uloboridae
Nesticidae
- Kryptonesticus eremita
Theridiidae
- Coelosoma floridanum
- Cryptachaea blattea
- Enoplognatha oelandica
- Rugathodes sexpunctatus
- Steatoda triangulosa
- Theridion hannoniae
- Theridion hemerobium
Mysmenidae
- Trogloneta granulum
LinyphiidaeTheridion hemerobium
- Agyneta fuscipalpa
- Agyneta mossica
- Diplocephalus graecus
- Frontinellina frutetorum
- Islandiana falsifica
- Lasiargus hirsutus
- Megalepthyphantes sp. near collinus
- Mermessus trilobatus
- Neriene emphana
- Nothophantes horridus
- Parapelecopsis nemoralioides
- Parapelecopsis susannae
- Syedra myrmicarum
- Wabasso replicatus
Lycosidae
Agelenidae
Dictynidae
- Lathys sp.
Anaphaenidae
Liocranidae
Clubionidae
Zodariidae
Gnaphosidae
- Civizelotes civicus
- Gnaphosa nigerrima
- Micaria micans
- Trachyzelotes fuscipes
Zoropsidae
- Zoropsis spinimana
Philodromidae
- Thanatus vulgaris
Thomisidae
Salticidae