Spiders of Alberta

Introduction:

There are an estimated 1300 species of spiders in Alberta. The smallest one has a 0.5 mm leg span and that the largest one, Tegenaria duellica, the giant house spider introduced from Europe, has at least a 10 cm leg span. Due to the shear number of spiders in Alberta, making a photographic record of each, let alone finding them to photograph is a long process. As such this website will be continuously evolving as new spiders are photographed and added to it. In general you will find photographs in it that will allow you to identify the most commonly occurring spiders in Alberta and some of the rarer ones too! Check back regularly as new photographs and spiders are added. Enjoy!

Classification:

Under the Linnaean system of classification spiders are placed in the Phylum Arthropoda, Superclass Hexapoda, Class Arachnida and then the Order Arachnida. Below this they are sub-divided into 2 sub-orders: Mesothelae (segmented spiders) and Opisthothelae. Mesothelae is comprised of a single family found only in SE Asia and as such is not covered in this website. The sub-order Opisthothelae is further divided into two infraorders. 1) Mygalomorphae (baboon spiders) which contains about 10% of known spider species and 2) Araneomorphae (true spiders) which contains the remaining 90% of spider species. Mygalomorphae typically have parallel fangs, while Araneomorphae have opposing or oblique fangs.