Could someone help me identify this spider? It was on my grill on my deck. I live near St Louis, MO.
Here's another shot of him on the gas line on my grill:
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii73/Dahm12/Spider/PICT0621.jpg
and a couple with a couple legs broken after I got him in a bucket for some close-ups:
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii73/Dahm12/Spider/PICT0621.jpg
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii73/Dahm12/Spider/PICT0619.jpg
Don't know what it is but I get those a lot in my yard here in Michigan.
I've been puzzling over this one, as it is one I do not recall ever seeing before. Although some aspects of it remind me of a lynx spider (family Oxyopidae), I have never seen one of those with a color pattern similar to this specimen. I'll keep puzzling for a while...
It looks like a pirate spider in the genus Mimetus. It resembles M. puritanus but I have not found any pictures of it occurring in MO (although I think it is likely that they do occur there). There is a paper published by Hank Guarisco and Daniel Mott titled "Status of the Genus Mimetus (Araneae: Mimetidae) in Kansas and a Description of the Egg Sac of Mimetus puritanus Chamberlin" published in the journal Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science (you can find the article of JSTOR) which obviously indicates that they occur in Kansas, which is of course the neighboring state. Here is a picture: http://tinyurl.com/2an8aad .
That's it! Thanks very much for solving the mystery; this is a family that I lack familiarity with.
Yeah, that definitely looks like him. Thanks!
This site (http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/Spiders/Mimetidae/Mimetidae.htm) notes that they have a bite that's lethal to their spider prey and paralyzing venom, but I can't find any information on whether they're dangerous to humans. I'd assume it's a case of no news is good news, if they were dangerous, that probably would have been listed, but does anyone know for sure? I found this one on my deck, and my kids play on the deck quite a bit.
I don't know but I don't care for those big spiders that hang in large webs like the agriopes. That's what I thought this one might be. If that one is the same kind I get here, I had one by my back door porch light in a web. It had similar markings on it.
To the best of my knowledge, all these spiders (orb weavers and pirate spiders) are harmless to humans. See the 'Sticky' thread on spider bites on this forum for more information on spider bites in general.
Yeah, I'll check out that sticky thread, but thanks again for all the responses!
