Where can I find a good reference on different spiders of north-east U.S. & south-east Canada?

Question

I can find info on Southern, European and even African arachnids (sp?) but no good guide for this area. Even tried Govt. book stores - Agriculture!

Answer 1

The following FIELD AND IDENTIFICATION GUIDES are probably offer the best sources for a comprehensive and informative answer to your question that is available;
The Common Spiders of the United States: By James Henry Emerton
How To Know the Spiders: By Benjamin Julian Kaston, 1972; this hardcover "How To Know" guide to U.S. spiders is comprehensive, and is one of the most useful guides available. Hundreds of drawings, descriptions and keys are found within it's 272 pages.

National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders: A popular field guide which contains color photographs and information on spiders and insects. This guide is a hardcover, published in 1980; 989 pages.

Spiders and Their Kin: This little "Golden Guide" (1990) by Herbert W. and Lorna R. Levi is very likely the most popular field identification book ever written on North American spiders. Full color illustrations of many common species are found throughout the book. This book is for everyone, from the budding spider collector to the professional arachnologist.

The following site is useful;
http://hobospider.org/index.html
Or you will have to search through the folllowing links and sites that I have provided for you below to find the various species of spiders of north-east U.S. & south-east Canada
http://www.srv.net/~dkv/hobospider/widows.html
http://members.tripod.com/~LouCaru/index-13.html
http://spiders.ucr.edu/necrotic.html
A variety of spider species built on one another's work to create a sprawling web that blanketed hundreds of yards of trees and shrubs at a North Texas park. to see this full story read the info on next site;
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/09/12/science-spider-web.html
http://www.royalalbertamuseum.ca/natural/insects/research/dangspid.htm
Canadian Wildlife Service, Parks Canada Agency, Department of Fisheries and ... CNC – Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, ...
http://individual.utoronto.ca/snellr/COSEWICBogusYuccaMoth.pdf - A PDF file
http://ca.search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&y=Search&rd=r1&fr=sfp&p=arachnids+of+northeast+U.S.+%26+southeast+Canada%3F&SpellState=n-3814342973_q-bXV5apcsozhnTzFwmLro2AAAAA%40%40&fr2=sp-top
An excellent link is next for Spider Identification.
Don't forget to look on your far right hand side of the site to get the fullest benefit of the link provided.
http://www.ask.com/web?q=Spider+Identification&qsrc=6&o=0&l=dir
Happy research! LOL

Answer 2

Farthest west: Washington, Oregon, California (take your pick) Farthest East: Whichever is farther between NY and FL Farthest North: New York Farthest South: Florida

Answer 3

Go to your local Forestry Service, county extension office (this is what we call it in the US) or a local university in that area...and ask if they have any professors that can help you...entymologists, biologists, foresters or environmental scientists...etc that can help you.

If you are looking for a certain spider that you want to identify, and can safely get a specimin, bring it with you when you talk to these people...or take a photo, scan it and email it to them...or use the photo to do a google IMAGE search on spiders until you find the most similar one to that which you have. Then read up on it to see if it sounds like the one you have with regard to habitat, habits...and finally, read further to see if it is a dangerous spider and what to do if you have a lot of them.

Answer 4

Here is a starting point.
The American Arachnological Society

Link Below.

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

maybe wikipedia?