# Alberta Wolf Spider



## jsloan (Nov 16, 2010)

This guy was a subadult when I caught him (in a pitfall trap) last August, and he finally molted about a week ago.  The genus is _Alopecosa_, but I need to look at the palps to find out the species.  Might be a morph of _A. aculeata_, but I'll check to be sure.  I've got an adult female that looks similar (need to ID her eventually, too), and I might put them together to see if anything happens.  If it does I'll get some photos.    BL ~ 9.5 mm













Earlier this season, I identified a male _A. aculeata_ that had a different color and pattern on the abdomen:







And here's a male I caught last year, which I have in BugGuide under _A. kochi_.  I think it might actually be _A. aculeata_, though, so one of these days I'm going to dig out the specimen and take another look at its palp:

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## davisfam (Nov 16, 2010)

Wowzaa, that's a gorgeous Wolfiie! Nice find! :clap: I sure hope we catch a few beautiies like this when we try out the traps! Thanks for sharing! 

And YES, please post pictures!! Haha! :]


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## jsloan (Nov 22, 2010)

Well, nothing happened when I put them together.  Here is the female, anyway, which I was able to identify from her epigyne as _Alopecosa aculeata_ (BL ~ 9 mm):







It's interesting how individuals of the same species can look different.  Here's another adult female _A. aculeata_ from   earlier in the season:

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## revilo (Nov 23, 2010)

hi jsloan,

very nice pics 

the alopecosa spp. are the biggest lycosids in germany (together with some  arctosa, trochosa). yah, we dont have big wolfies here...
but i like them a lot, they are a little bit like "mini hogna" i sometimes think when i look at them.
if you would like it i set a few alopecosa pics in this thread ?

ciao oli

p.s.: excuse my bad english, it's too early in the morning...


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## jsloan (Nov 23, 2010)

revilo said:


> if you would like it i set a few alopecosa pics in this thread ?


Sure.  I'd like to see them.  Can you post small files, though?  I'm on dialup and some of the larger ones take forever to download.  I'm unable to look at a lot of the images posted in here for that reason.


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## jsloan (Nov 24, 2010)

revilo said:


> the alopecosa spp. are the biggest lycosids in germany (together with some  arctosa, trochosa). yah, we dont have big wolfies here...


I'm looking forward to seeing your _Alopecosa_ pics.  

_Trochosa_ and _Alopecosa_, with BL around 9-10 mm, are the largest wolfs I've found in northern Alberta.  You're lucky in having several _Trochosa sp._ in Europe.  _T. terricola_ is the only species where I live. 

But, as far as size goes, I think the smaller wolf spiders, especially the many _Pardosa_ species, are just as interesting as the larger ones.  I've identified around ten species so far in and around my home.  Perhaps we should start a _Pardosa_ thread?    I've already posted some pics in various scattered threads over the past year or so.


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## revilo (Nov 24, 2010)

hi jsloan,

sorry have to get up soo early this week that i'm tired and lazy in the evening 

here are some pics :





















this are 2 alopecosa species from near by my house.  a. trabalis and a. cuneata






this is trochosa ruricola i think






















and this is a undeterminated alopecosa sp. from china. the only lycosidae i was mating without success (all others worked good) - she was building 3 eggsacs, but nothing hatched :wall:

i hope you like it...

regards, oli

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## revilo (Nov 24, 2010)

aarrrgh - pics are big ??!! maybe i was doing a mistake ?

hope you are able to watch them without problems...


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## jsloan (Nov 25, 2010)

revilo said:


> aarrrgh - pics are big ??!! maybe i was doing a mistake ?
> 
> hope you are able to watch them without problems...


Yes, no problems.  It took about 15 minutes for them to download, but I got them all.  Looks like you've got some good ones there.  _Trochosa sp._ are some of my favorite wolf spiders.


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## jsloan (Nov 25, 2010)

Here's a pair of _Trochosa terricola_ from Alberta:

Adult Female:







Adult Male:

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## revilo (Nov 27, 2010)

hi,

oh sh.. 15 min. !? sorry for this ! next time i try to scale the pics...

yes, trochosa spp. are nice and in the past i liked them a lot because they are the bigger ones here in germany. but now, hmm i don't like them soo much because the glassy and shiny legs  so i love more the alopecosa spp. from the smaller species'...

but you have great luck with the find of your male ! i will say in case i found 10 trochosa's than only one of them is a male.

you mate them ?

bye, oli


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## jsloan (Nov 27, 2010)

revilo said:


> you mate them ?


Not this male and female, but another pair.  The female produced an egg sac and the babies hatched.  Here's a link to some pictures:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/385244/bgimage


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## Montgg (Oct 15, 2012)

Jsloan you found these? in alberta i live in edmonton i thought we only had paradosa in nw alberta ?? help please thx. and how would i catch one thx


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## Montgg (Oct 16, 2012)

I thought pardosa was only found in Edmonton area please some one reply thx


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## Ciphor (Oct 16, 2012)

Thread is a year old mate.

_Pardosa_ is a cosmopolitan genus, found virtually everywhere on the planet. _Pardosa_ is definitely well represented in Alberta CA

http://bugguide.net/node/view/3389/data


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## Montgg (Oct 16, 2012)

well going tomorow to go bug hunting. hoping to catch something other then a pardosa are there any other wolf spiders in ab 
that are not pardosa ive looked all over the web and found no results


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## StampFan (Jul 29, 2018)

Bumping forward this LONG dead thread as my kids just caught one of these today.  Any advice on keeping one of these alive for a week or two in a container for the kids to watch?

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