My first glance at Robert’s photos told me this was going to be an interesting study. It was obviously a wolf spider in the Lycosidae family, based on the easily observable arrangement of the eyes. Richard Bradley, in his recently published book Common Spiders of North America, put it this way: “Wolf spiders are easy to recognize — they all have an unusual arrangement of their eight eyes… Four of the eyes, the posterior ones, are large, forming a trapezoid at the top of the high carapace. The posterior median eyes are usually the largest and face forward. The posterior lateral eyes are also large and are well behind the PME on the head region, usually facing to the side or even backward… In front of the PME there is a row of four smaller anterior eyes.” [...]
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On 24 November 2012 Sarah A. Woller, of the Texas A&M Institute for Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, wrote that she had taken some photos of a wolf spider, and that while the spider was in captivity it exuded a mucus-like material that covered much of its abdomen. Would I like copies of the photos? Sarah, an outstanding photographer, had already sent me a number of excellent images, all of which I hope to post on bugsinthenews soon. I knew the products of her photographic labors would almost certainly be of extraordinary quality, and that led to an immediate reply in the affirmative. Not that I insist on using only high quality images here. Mediocre, even poor photos of important organisms make worthy postings if they are the best to be had. My latest micrograms, for example — which prove that shooting good photos through a dissecting microscope lens is an art I’ve yet to master — testify to that. But I digress… [...] The field wolf spider (Hogna lenta) was first described in 1844 by the French American arachnologist Nicholas Marcellus Hentz. His description was penned in these words: Lycosa lenta. PI. 3, figs. 1-4. (Hentz made drawings of the specimens he described… [...] The wolf spider, in the Lycosidae family, is distributed worldwide, and is comprised of more than 100 recognized genera, and approximately 2,300 species. The family name Lycosidae was first described in 1833 by the Swedish zoologist Carl Jakob Sundevall (1801-1875). Sundevall chose the Greek word λύκος, lykos, “wolf,” as a reference to the way wolves hunt for and take down their prey, though wolves hunt in packs and the arachnids Sundevall had in mind hunt alone. [...] The size of this spider was intriguing. It was easy to understand why Bernard was surprised to see it in his swimming pool. Bernard was kind enough to take several additional photos for me to examine, to help ensure an accurate identification. However, the length of this specimen (35mm, or 1.375 inches), alone, was likely enough to reduce the number of candidates to one. None of our wolf spiders attain this size save Hogna carolinensis, and then only the female is so large, the male being so much smaller as to be understandably confused — in terms of size — with other lycosids. [...] The rabid wolf spider (Rabidosa rabida), which is often known by the common name “wolf spider” (though that label is also attached in a general way to describe all the spiders in the family Lycosidae), is one of our largest wolf spiders. In the photo at left, the specimen depicted has a body that is a full 1.5 inches in length, with a leg span that approaches four inches. It should be no surprise that when these spiders are found they inspire fear and dread. [...] |
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