ueiaraneae 的最愛

This one is giving us headaches here in Denmark. I found it a night-time in late May, in a forest clearing with juniper and heath. At first I thought C. virescens or campestre but the paleness got my attention. It looked different somehow. A young male was also present. I tried rearing both to adulthood, the male died in the proces, but the female survived. It took her 3 months to moult only a few moults despite having plenty of food! Finally i genital examined her, and of all the species I've looked at gratum comes closest. Problem is, gratum has such little material and drawings available that we are cautious not to call it gratum right away and thereby announcing it as a new species for the country. We are even considering ordering the types of gratum for comparison to be sure. So all input, before we start that endeavour is greatly appreciated.

The habitat is very unique, it has reeds, birch, oak, spruce, pine, heath, moss coverage, juniper, bare sand, water holes and more all within a tiny area. The habitat is home to several Danish rarities.

C. virescens epigyne comes close, and is reason for caution. But an external difference unrelated to the epigyne, is that I've noticed that virescens seems to have a prominent spine on femur 1, on the prolateral side. This one doesn't have that spine.

This is very likely a new species for Denmark. A man saw it on a construction site in Taarbæk, but wouldn't give the exact location.
Similar to this individual which was found closeby but in a natural setting overwintering under bark of an oak tree. - https://www.naturbasen.dk/observation/3345787/philodromus-cespitum
Im absolutely certain the animal at the link is not cespitum. Even though it was genital examined, cespitum would not look like that. Especially not two individuals. Will try to locate males in 2024