Trigonidium cicindeloides (possibly), Rambur 1838

Cricket!

It's summer. It's very hot. There are lots of insects around and about in the UK right now, and I've been tormenting them with the camera while completely failing to maintain this blog.

This is not one of them:

Male? Chongwe, Lusaka, Zambia, March 2013. Olympus E-420 DSLR with Zuiko 40-150mm lens and 3 KOOD magnifiers.

This little chukululu is, as you may guess from the Chewa introduction, a Zambian. In other languages, this widespread subfamily of crickets are known as Sword-tail crickets  in English, and Käfergrille (~black cricket) in German. To, as we've been attempting without much success, give it a more specific label in Chewa, we could translate the English directly to Lupanga-Khombo Chukululu, or perhaps, with an attempt at grammatical correctness, Chukululu ndi Khombo yonga Lupanga.

A more specific identity is a little iffy; it does belong to the genus Trigonidium, and bears a very strong resemblance to members of its putative species,

Trigonidium (Trigonidium) cicindeloides

Rambur, 1838.

There are, however, a fair number of Trigonidium species native to sub-Saharan Africa. None of them, interestingly, are noted by the - brilliant -  Orthoptera Species File as recorded from Zambia, but at least two very distinct forms are present in Chongwe district, which correspond in form closely to two widely distributed species recorded from neighbouring countries or - in the case of T. cicindeloides - recorded from an interrupted range of countries that suggest its presence in Zambia. While there are other species described from neighbouring countries, these are of such limited known range and recent distribution that it would be incautious to predict their presence in Zambia.

The location itself is further suggestive of the species the two so closely resemble - both were in an agricultural, regularly disturbed area not far from Lusaka city; notably widespread species, recorded - as both this and the (unshown) T. erythrocephala are - primarily from the most developed corners of the continent - are more likely to have the adaptability to survive, and even thrive, in such a human-dominated environment.

So, waffle over, and another angle of our little lupanga-khombo chukululu: 

Eukaryota; Animalia; Eumetazoa; Bilateralia; Nephrozoa; Protostomia; Ecdysozoa; Arthropoda; Hexapoda; Insecta; Dicondylia; Pterygota; Metapterygota; Neoptera; Polyneoptera; Anartioptera; Polyorthoptera; Orthopterida; Panorthoptera; Orthoptera; Ensifera; Grylloidea; Gryllidae; Trigonidiinae; Trigonidiini.

Dysdera crocata; Koch, 1838

This is probably a record - photograph and upload on the same day.

Today, at work, I was pleasantly surprised by an unexpected guest.

Several of my co-workers were not-so-pleasantly surprised, and wanted to squish the guest. I not-so-delicately reminded them that arachnophobia is in no way the fault - or the problem - of the spider, and took her outside, where she rewarded me with this:

Female. Photographed in Bosham, West Sussex, UK, in April 2014 (today) using Olympus E-420 DSLR, Zuiko 40-150mm lens and 3 KOOD magnifiers.

That isn't an aggressive pose, by the way, but a defensive pose adopted when I loomed in closer than she liked with the camera. And while it's perhaps not the best way to endear her to an audience which is on the fence, those rather extraordinary chelicerae are relevant, because this is the (recently cosmopolitan) European Woodlouse Spider,

Dysdera crocata

Koch, 1838

  
As you might have guessed, she feeds upon woodlice and other comparably crusty creatures. Those formidable fangs are what allow her to bite through the calcium carbonate coating of the average woodlouse, or the chitin of a millipede or even - if you were so incautious as to poke her in the face - the somewhat softer keratin of human skin.

If you do - as quite a few people have - find yourself inciting a woodlouse spider to bite, don't panic  - the recorded effects on humans are in the region of nettle and honeybee stings (see the Natural History Museum's bite records here). 

With that, then, let's explore her taxonomy: 

- Dysderinae         

-  Dysderidae          

- Dysderoidea           

- Haplogynae             

- Araneoclada             

See also Phrynarachne rugosa, Hyllus argyrotoxus, Enoplognatha ovata, Argiope bruennichi, Pardosa amentata  and Alopecosa barbipes. 

- Neocribellatae           

- Araneomorphae           

- Opisthothelae                

- Araneae                         

- Megoperculata                  

- Micrura                              

- Arachnida                             

See also Dicranopalpus ramosus.

- Chelicerata                            

- Arthropoda                            

See also Ligia oceanica, Eremoides bicristatus, Hagenomyia tristis, Dichtha inflata, Oedemera nobilis, Otiorhynchus atroapterus,Malachius bipustulatus , Phyllobius pomaceus, Cheilomenes lunata, Melolontha melolontha, Neojulodis vittipennis, Demetrias atricapillus, Anthia fornasinii, Lophyra cf. differens, Synagris proserpina, Vespula germanica, Astata tropicalis, Anthophora furcata, Andrena nigroaenea, Zebronia phenice, Crambus pascuella, Nemophora degeerella, Sphinx ligustri, Laelia robusta, Acada biseriata, Metisella willemi, Anthocharis cardamines, Papilio demodocus, Panorpa germanica, Chloromyia formosa, Senaspis haemorrhoa, Helophilus pendulus, Episyrphus balteatus, Metadon inermis, Diasemopsis meigenii, Dolichotachina caudata, Megistocera filipes, Pephricus, Grypocoris stysi, Ranatra, Anoplocnemis curvipes, Idolomantis dentifrons, Sibylla pretiosa, Tettigonia viridissima, Stictogryllacris punctata, Enyaliopsis, Humbe tenuicornis, Lobosceliana loboscelis, Cyathosternum prehensile, Heteropternis thoracica, Pseudothericles jallae, Enallagma cyathigerum, Pseudagrion hageni, Lestinogomphus angustus and Rhyothemis semihyalina. 

- Ecdysozoa                               

- Protostomia                              

See also Burtoa nilotica.

- Nephrozoa                                  

See also Caprimulgus pectoralis, Tockus alboterminatus, Larus argentatus, Sterna hirundo, Burhinus vermiculatus, Troglodytes troglodytes, Megaceryle maxima, Ardea goliath, Chalcophaps indica, Stigmatopelia senegalensis, Lygodactylus capensis, Thelotornis capensis, Zootoca vivipara, Trachylepis varia, Trachylepis striata wahlbergi, Hipposideros vittatus, Syncerus caffer, Rana temporaria, Breviceps poweri, Chiromantis xerampelina and Synchiropus splendidus. 

- Bilateralia                                     

- Eumetazoa                                     

- Animalia                                          

- Eukaryota                                         

There are two species of Dysdera present in the UK, both of which can occasionally be found indoors - much more frequently in the case of today's distinctly synanthropic (does well near humans) guest. They're not too readily distinguished, as colour characters are often unreliable, but the presence of one external character can readily rule out Dysdera erythrina [although its absence cannot, unfortunately for the spiders, rule out D. crocata, and so dissection is sometimes necessary if perfect identification is vital to the survival of the human race]. Behold;

Although not at their most visible in this shot, our lovely lady has a couple (three, actually, on the circled thigh - two is usual) of small, black bristles on the dorsal surface (top side) of her fourth femur (thigh bit). So - despite having colouring suggestive of D. erythrina, and being in a region where both are known, we've got a known specimen.

Which is nice, don't you think?

And with that, that really is all, folks.

An excellent starting point for UK spiders is the Spider (and harvestman) Recording Scheme - link in name. With pictures of probably a majority of species, maps of known records, and absolutely stunning graphs and pie-charts (I love statistics. I didn't always. But now I do. Thank you, Dr. Tom Reader, for showing me the light. If I'd only realised my love before I handed in my dissertation three years ago...).