Castineira longipalpa or variata

[einman]

Without actually trying to look closer at the reproductive organs I am leaning towards variata.

Single shot no stacking through a covered petri dish.

[apochronaut]

There used to be a small facility not too far from us called the Reptile Breeding Foundation, that bred endangered reptiles. The owners had one son, who grew up fascinated with spiders and became an arachnologist. I knew him since he was a little boy but have not seen him for many years. He may now be associated with Rutgers but seems to have moved on to scorpions and spends a lot of time in Central America.
I discussed finding a microscope for him on a few occasions and in determining his needs I asked what types of things he would need one for. At the time it was for examining genitalia for two reasons. One was to determine the sex of certain individuals and the other is that sometimes the genitalia are the only markers by which you can determine one species from another.

[einman]

Apparently that is the case with these two species. When you Google them for images etc the variation across the species makes body coloration and patterns a hit or miss thus teh reason for using a microscope for genitalia. I prefer not to kill a specimen solely for identification purposes and have not tried to sedate a specimen.

Although I have sedated ants with CO2 to re-locate them from one container to another.

By the way it looks like I may be in Canada late July. Etobicoke, Ontario

[75RR]

I imagine you have come across this site but other neophytes like myself may find it interesting.

https://spiderid.com/spider/corinnidae/ ... ongipalpa/

I prefer not to kill a specimen solely for identification purposes and have not tried to sedate a specimen.

Was going to ask about sedation

[einman]

Yes I am aware of that site. Does not help much. I am sure sedation could be an option although I have not discussed with an arachnologist what is involved and what potential damage to the specimen could result. Many images on Google simply stop at the Genus for these guys.

It is interesting how many specimens I obtain simply sitting in my basement office! Of course I find many others, which having met my cats prior, do not make for good specimens.