Does anyone know what species this is? And is it poisonous? With its legs at the normal position as in the picture, it's about the size of a half dollar. Thank you.
Links here:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/198/img20120110193300.jpg
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/689/img20120110193150.jpg
This message was edited Jan 10, 2012 7:55 PM
All spiders are venomous. I want to say that this is a Fishing or Nursery Web Spider. It is harmless to humans.
This does look like a fishing spider in the genus Dolomedes, but the only species in that genus recorded from California appears to be Dolomedes triton (http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~stevelew/rta3.html), which is quite different from this specimen.
I've pinged Steve to see if he can give some expert insight.
I've been having second thoughts on this one, as a diagnosis of Pisauridae, and especially Dolomedes, seemed so unlikely given your locality. Have a look at Zoropsis spinimana, a recently introduced species - http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74143.html
I guess that email for Steve is no longer valid.
Also, I'd like to note that we had friends in town from Tuscon, AZ and also recently Los Angeles, CA who stayed overnight. We also came back from a trip overseas to London, UK and Paris, France. I would hope we didn't bring the bugger home with us, but you never know.
It looks like the "Zoropsis spinimana" is the one. I'm no spider expert or even novice, but even the patterns on its body is almost identical...
