| Scotina celans (Blackwall, 1841) |
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Scientific name: Scotina celans (Blackwall, 1841) Common name: French name: Order: Araneae Family: Liocranidae Size: Body size: 2.8 to 3.3 mm for males and 3 to 4.8 mm for females. Biotope: On the ground among moss and leaf litter. Heathlands, clearings, woodland edges, dry meadows. Web: No web. Observation period: In autumn for males, all year round for females. Geographic area: Western and Central Europe east to Russia, Algeria. |
Spiders of the Liocranidae family look like those of the Clubionidae family. They differ by the eye arrangement, both in two rows of 4 eyes but these ones closer to each other, and by the labium being as long as wide (much longer than wide on Clubionidae). The number of pair of ventral spines on tibias and métatarsi I and II can be used a key to the different genera. Scotina celans shows a dark cephalothorax longitudinally crossed by a pale orange brown stripe and bordered on each side by stripes of the same colour. The abdomen is dark and bears reddish brown chevrons which are hardly visible on males. Femurs are a pale yellowish brown colour while the remaining parts of the legs are generally darker. Scotina gracilipes shows the same pattern on the cephalothorax but the stripes are darker and so less visible. The tips of the legs are also darker, especially tibias and metatarsi of legs I and II which appear almost black. |
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Scotina celans entered the house, using a window left open to ventilate. The small size and the dark abdomen, without markings, probably indicate one male. |
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Be careful, the house is already the hunting ground for other species that can attack intruders. I observed Scotina celans in an unfortunate position, caught in the threads let by a juvenile Longbodied Cellar Spider, each pulling on its side. I do not know the outcome of this struggle. |
André Bon July 2020