Enoplognatha ovata (Clerck, 1757)

Let's start with taxonomy. It is a(n): Eukaryote (and until I either visit the Stromatolites in australia, or I can afford a camera that takes pictures of individual cells, they all will be); Animal (I didn't get a zoology degree to take pictures of plants), Eumetazoan (not a sponge, sorry, Poriferophiles), Bilateralian (so basically any higher animal that isn't an anemone, hydra, jellyfish or relative thereof), Nephrozoan (I'm sure I should know what that means), Protostome (so definitely not a vertebrate, sea-squirt or echinoderm), Ecdysozoan (it sheds its skin), Arthropod (It has - or evolved from something which had - a jointed exoskeleton), Chelicerate (it has feeding structures called chelicerae. They're recogniseable. Spiders and scorpions have them), Arachnomorph (Roughly spider shaped. Not a horseshoe crab. ), Arachnidan (still roughly spider shaped, and definitely not a horseshoe crab), Micruran (so not a scorpion or a harvestman either. Could still get in there as a tick, though), Megoperculatan (so not a tick, either. What could it possibly be?), Araneaean (... or however you turn "Araneae" into an adjective. It's a Spider, basically),  Opistotholaean (most diverse modern lineage of spiders. Includes most if not all of the familiar species), Araneomorph (so not a Tarantula), Neocribellate (it's modern, it's funky and it can make its silk funky), Araneocladan (it's a reasonably close relative of the orb-web spiders in Araneidae), Entelegyne (that refers to the structure of its, um, bits), Araneoid (it's really quite a close relative of the orb-web spiders in the araneidae, it quite possibly builds its own orb web), Theridiid (not an orb-web spider, then, but a comb-footed spider, a group which includes the widow spiders, button spiders, redbacks and various less venomous and less famous spiders), Pholcommatinae (So not a widow spider, false widow, button or redback spider...), and its Linnaean binomial (or "Scientific name") is...(drumroll please)...

Enoplognatha ovata (Clerck, 1757)

This Linnaean binomial tells us a few things:

Firstly, it was officially described by someone going by the surname of Clerck in 1757. This actually refers to Carl Alexander Clerck, a Swedish naturalist of some note. Wikipedia exists to tell you more, here. The brackets also let you know that the name is not exactly the one that he gave it, although I've been unable to find out precisely what he did call it.

Second, it is either a highly recognisable species, or European: The habit of assigning Linnaean binomials began with the very late, very great Carolus Linnaeus in 1753. Although European naturalists were heading all over the globe at this stage, they weren't delving into the deeper taxonomy of, for example, fruit flies, at least not in the far-flung places.

Third, and this is the iffy bit, you get to struggle to find the original root of the word; the binomial is often referred to as a Latin name, but actually it's a hodgepodge of Latin, Greek and, more recently, whatever language to author feels like throwing in there. Without reference to the original text (or in fact anything I have to pay to see), the generic name, that is to say, "Enoplognatha" (which should always be written with a capital E and, in conjunction with the specific epithet (ovata), should be italicised or underlined, to indicate that they form a species name), seems to be from the Greek ένοπλ γνάθ, (~Enopl gnath), meaning "Armed Jaw". The specific epithet "ovata" is Latin, and means egg-shaped, or egg-like.


There are other things we could tell, beyond that we have an armed-jawed creature which is in some way reminiscent of an egg, and if it isn't large and recognisable, is probably european, but we could take it to ridiculous lengths, and get extremely bored. Besides, this is a Photoblog.


Arachnophobes should either look away or grow up.

Enter the photo:

It's not a great picture. I hope it's not one I'm remembered for.

This one (more will be added as and when they are taken) was found in its more-or-less natural habitat of a hedgerow, within its natural range (specifically Bosham Railway station in the UK). It blessed me with its fleeting presence on the Eighth of July, 2012. And it's copyrighted me (image will be updated soon to include watermark. If you want to steal it, there really is no time like the present).