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Both species of Enoplognatha ovata have various colour forms that are clearly documented in the species accounts - I'll re-iterate here to make sure I've got it right and to save people looking it up:-

var. lineata - plain yellow var. redimita - two pink stripes var. ovata - solid pink shield (v. rare in e.latimana)

I was wondering where black striped Enoplognatha ovata fall, whether they were just a very dark version of var. redimita, but then I found a pdf of American arachnology from 1987 which talks about black striped phenotypes of all variants. (Dr Geoff Oxford appears to have supplied data on this).

I post here in case others find it as interesting as I do, even if its old news to many!

http://www.americanarachnology.org/JoA_free/JoA_v15_n3/%20JoA_v15_p419.pdf

So.. is it worth recording the black phenotypes as such? (In the notes when submitting records I mean) If so what would be best - to add a "nigricans" to the variant if determinable (it sounds like var. lineata-nigricans and var. redimita-nigricans could be hard to tell apart). Or just plain english "var. lineata - black striped" Regards, Matt