# Southeast suburban spider safari



## padkison (Feb 13, 2007)

I've been going out during warm nights (50F+) this winter and looking for local true spiders.  This takes place around the Raleigh/Cary area of North Carolina.

So far I've found several species of wolf spiders, nursery web spider, large funnel web spiders and dolomedes.

Here are some pictures of a trip my daughter and I took last night.

The staging area (behind a distribution center near a large flood control lake).






The woods between the center and the lake.











One finds the spiders by looking for their glowing eyes in the headlamp light. 

Rabidosa species of wolf spider found in grassy area at edge of woods. About 1.5" legspan.  There is another, larger species I've found in the summer that is about 2" in legspan.






In the cup







Hogna georgicola burrow.  These are hidden under the leaves and are found by spotting the spider's eyes glowing as it sits just outside the burrow.  No way one could find these by day.







Excavated burrow with occupant






A shot of her ventral surface







Soil centipede uncovered while excavating burrow






Spiders were a little scarce due to the temperature.


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## KUJordan (Feb 15, 2007)

looks like a fun time.  yeah, some of those Lycosids can have deceptively bright eye shines for their size.  Kind of like how you can't tell the size of a fish on your line by how much force it fights with...


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## cacoseraph (Feb 15, 2007)

nice wolfs.

that centipede looks to be a blind giant centipede of the Scolopocryptops species
http://www.geocities.com/blight_child/centis/states/cent_NC.html


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## padkison (Apr 15, 2007)

Got some more spider shots

Widows






















Some colorful beetle grub






Pisuarina mira (2" leg span)


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## buthus (Apr 15, 2007)

padkison!  Thank you dude!  Those variolus pics tell me so much info ...I wish I could root around there myself! 
All the pics are awsome.  The beetle grub is crazy nice.


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