Family Fishing Spiders (Dolomedidae)

Whitebanded Fishing Spider

Dolomedes albineus

Identification: Generally an ID can be made by the white band along the 'face' (clypeus), though this is not always present in all patterning variations: D. albineus is also the only member of the North American fishing spiders to sometimes sport a m

Okefenokee Fishing Spider

Dolomedes okefinokensis

Identification: This species is not distinguishable from D. tenebrosus without looking at characteristics of the palp/epigynum (Carico, 1973). Adult female D. okefinokensis may actually be the largest species of Dolomedes . See the measurements give

Striped Fishing Spider

Dolomedes scriptus

Identification: Distinguishing Dolomedes vittatus from Dolomedes scriptus males can be rather tricky at times, so here's a couple physical characteristics that I use to tell the two apart: 1.) Generally, the abdominal markings of adult male D. script

Dolomedes striatus

Dolomedes striatus

Identification: Compared to D. triton , the abdominal white bands of D. striatus are more dorsal, more distinct, and are solid colored, and the abdominal dark median band is darker at the edge adjacent to the white bands. This species and D. triton a

Dolomedes tenebrosus

Dolomedes tenebrosus

Identification: Brownish to gray with few white marks, dark W-shaped marks on dorsal surface of abdomen. Note that mature females are much larger than mature males--see Life Cycle . The main difference between scriptus and tenebrosus is that the 'W'

Six-spotted Fishing Spider

Dolomedes triton

Identification: The abdomen has a series of small paired white and/or light blue spots. The sternum is marked with six large black spots. However, those black spots sometimes blend together, as seen in the image below. This species and D. striatus ap

New Mexico Fishing Spider

Dolomedes gertschi