Spider ID - wolf spider?

[CARattler40]

About ten minutes ago, I found what I think is some type of wolf spider crawling along the top of my cat's litter box. I'm in South Texas, and from what I've gathered, they're not uncommon in our parts. I managed to snap a few pictures of the little guy before I took it outside and let it go (I'm an admitted arachnophobe, and was shaking just trying to catch it ), so hopefully somebody can shed some light on just what this thing was.

For ID purposes, it was maybe a little over an inch long

Thanks for any info you can provide.

 

[Emanuele]

If you were in Europe I'd said Tibellus sp. (probably Tibellus oblongus, a spider of the Family Philodromidae.
But I don't know if this species is present also in USA. Anyway, it's a Philodromidae and not a Lycosidae (wolf-spiders).
For your Arachnophobia, this spider is completely harmless to human.
Cheers
Ema

 

[pitbulllady]

That's a Nursery Web Spider, Pisaurina mira.

pitbulllady

 

[Spaceman_Spiff]

Emanuele is right, it's a Tibellus sp. (Philodromidae).
It's not T. maritimus or T. oblongus, but there are several other species occurring in the USA, says platnick!
http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/PHILODROMIDAE.html

greets
Bernhard

 

[NRF]

Both T. oblongus and T. maritimus occur in da US of A, but probably not as south as Texas. But yes, Tibellus anyway.

 

[orcrist]

I was inclined to say Pisaura, but the abdomen's not in the right proportion.

The Tibellus people seem to know what they're talking about, though.

 

[GoliathTaylor]

Male wolf spider

This is a male wolf spider. I have 1 male and 2 females. The way to tell is the stripe along it's back and that females are dark and the males are tan. I've had quite a lot of these. Their really gentle spiders and aren't agressive at all. I feed them smaller crickets and keep them in small homes about the size of a butter container. My oldest one is Howler and she's gotten a lot bigger since I've had her (almost 4 months). She'll follow my finger when I put it on the glass. These spiders are awful fast though. Mac is under our fridge, but we don't want to move it for fear of squishing him. We get a lot of these here in the Midwest.

 

[dps1]

Both T. oblongus and T. maritimus occur in da US of A, but probably not as south as Texas. But yes, Tibellus anyway.

Indeed. See that map for occurrence records to date for T. oblongus at http://canadianarachnology.dyndns.org/data/spiders/30106. You may also see 6 other species of Tibellus there to be found in NA.

 

[cacoseraph]

This is a male wolf spider. I have 1 male and 2 females. The way to tell is the stripe along it's back and that females are dark and the males are tan. I've had quite a lot of these. Their really gentle spiders and aren't agressive at all. I feed them smaller crickets and keep them in small homes about the size of a butter container. My oldest one is Howler and she's gotten a lot bigger since I've had her (almost 4 months). She'll follow my finger when I put it on the glass. These spiders are awful fast though. Mac is under our fridge, but we don't want to move it for fear of squishing him. We get a lot of these here in the Midwest.

negative. coloration is not a good way to do any id'ing, usually.

to ID a spider to family level first look at the eye arrangement. wolf spiders have two large well developed eyes that this spider in question is completely missing

 

[ShadowSpectrum]

This is a male wolf spider. I have 1 male and 2 females. The way to tell is the stripe along it's back and that females are dark and the males are tan. I've had quite a lot of these. Their really gentle spiders and aren't agressive at all. I feed them smaller crickets and keep them in small homes about the size of a butter container. My oldest one is Howler and she's gotten a lot bigger since I've had her (almost 4 months). She'll follow my finger when I put it on the glass. These spiders are awful fast though. Mac is under our fridge, but we don't want to move it for fear of squishing him. We get a lot of these here in the Midwest.

Not to mention, the spider in question is not a mature male, look at the palps.

 

[CARattler40]

Thanks for the replies, it's pretty cool to have an idea of what this thing was. Good for an arachnophobe like myself to know it's not going to do any damage to me if I find another one.