# Pics of giant wolf spider



## Carolina_wolfie (Sep 14, 2012)

As you wonderful folks may or may not know, I am starting a wolf spider breeding project.  I will be breeding, raising & selling GIANT wolf spiders (Hogna carolinensis).  I will be selectively breeding for size.  Any spiders which are below the maximum size for the species will NOT be used for breeding.  This means that it is very important for me to obtain MONSTERS for my breeding stock.  Does anyone want to help me???  In the future, I want to work on establishing my reputation as THE breeder with the world's largest captive bred H. carolinensis who everyone comes to!  Anyway, I am posting some pics which show one of my giant wolf spiders.  It is an adult female that is feeding on a Turkestan cockroach (Shelfordella lateralis).  I want to breed her.  Though I don't have any males... unfortunately!    So, my project is currently at a standstill until I can somehow obtain some large adult males.  Here are the pics of one of my girls:





































Please bring on the feedback.  Thanks!


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## jbm150 (Sep 14, 2012)

She looks like a real bruiser, good luck with the project!


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## MarkmD (Sep 14, 2012)

She/he looks nice but mean. Good pics.


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## Ciphor (Sep 14, 2012)

Keep us posted on the selective breeding results. I attempted this myself for many years and generations of _T. gigantea_ with no success. The sizes were always variable, and sometimes I'd end up raising a smaller one, and sometimes a larger, no mater how big mom & dad were.


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## Carolina_wolfie (Sep 15, 2012)

jbm150 said:


> She looks like a real bruiser, good luck with the project!


jbm150:  Yeah, my girl is a monster!  Thanks for wishing me good luck.  

---------- Post added 09-15-2012 at 09:51 AM ----------




MarkmD said:


> She/he looks nice but mean. Good pics.


MarkmD:  Awwwwww...  She's a sweetheart!  Hehehe!!!  

---------- Post added 09-15-2012 at 09:53 AM ----------




Ciphor said:


> Keep us posted on the selective breeding results. I attempted this myself for many years and generations of _T. gigantea_ with no success. The sizes were always variable, and sometimes I'd end up raising a smaller one, and sometimes a larger, no mater how big mom & dad were.


Ciphor:  Since you've already tried selective breeding with T. gigantea and you got mixed results, then I am fairly sure that the exact same thing will happen with H. carolinensis too.  So, I guess this means that giant adults can mate & produce small offspring and also small adults can mate & produce giant offspring.  Correct?  This is strange because I would think that genetics (and food availability / captive care) would make a difference in the ultimate size of the offspring.  It really stinks that the size of the parents doesn't matter!    Oh well...  I can still breed & sell this species no matter what the adult size of the offspring will be (Though I was hoping for the maximum size!).  I still want to be well known as THE source for captive bred H. carolinensis in this hobby.  The people who keep only tarantulas are missing out on these fascinating true spiders!  I want to change this by offering North America's LARGEST species of wolf spider to hobbyists and having this impressive spider in the spotlight for a change.  Breeding H. carolinensis is a good thing because putting captive bred individuals into the hobby will lessen the collecting pressure on wild populations (even though they aren't threatened).

Anyway, thanks for letting me know that you already did this.  It makes me look differently at what I want to do.  Though I do have a question.  When you bred large adults... were the batches mostly small offspring with some large individuals, mostly large offspring with some small individuals or a 50/50 mix?  The percentage in each batch matters a lot.

Thanks again, Ciphor!


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## SamuraiSid (Sep 15, 2012)

Carolina_wolfie, dont give up hope.

Im no scientist, but I've read enough to believe that selective breeding will work. Unfortunately you might have to breed several generations before you notice any actual increase in overall size.


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## donniedark0 (Sep 15, 2012)

Interesting you posted this thread. All summer I been looking for big wolf spiders and had terrible luck. Just randomly checking around logs and also in the local woods. Terrible luck, everything was small. 

Definitiely keep up the motivation to do this. Would be cool to breed them and also learn about this at the same time. The knowledge itself is priceless. 

Goodluck


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## PrettyHate (Sep 15, 2012)

I dont know anything about wolf spiders. How big is considered "monster size" for this species?


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## The Snark (Sep 15, 2012)

Odd question. Do spiders have 'throwback' offspring like horses? (Foals reverting to previous generations)


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## Carolina_wolfie (Sep 17, 2012)

SamuraiSid said:


> Carolina_wolfie, dont give up hope.
> 
> Im no scientist, but I've read enough to believe that selective breeding will work. Unfortunately you might have to breed several generations before you notice any actual increase in overall size.


SamuraiSid:  Thanks for your encouragement.  

Well, the discouraging thing is Ciphor said that he already did selective breeding for many years and generations of a different species of spider with no success.  This is okay though because I can still breed and sell H. carolinensis no matter what size the adults are.  I don't have to selectively breed them.  Just breeding them in general is fine with me.  The important thing is that I will be offering captive bred H. carolinensis in the pet trade (since most of them are sold wild caught).

---------- Post added 09-17-2012 at 08:21 AM ----------




donniedark0 said:


> Interesting you posted this thread. All summer I been looking for big wolf spiders and had terrible luck. Just randomly checking around logs and also in the local woods. Terrible luck, everything was small.
> 
> Definitiely keep up the motivation to do this. Would be cool to breed them and also learn about this at the same time. The knowledge itself is priceless.
> 
> Goodluck


donniedark0:  I am sorry to learn that you've been having bad luck regarding finding large wolf spiders.  Here is an excellent method which will definitely produce results.  You can find juveniles AND adults using the eye-shine method.  Get yourself a headlamp and go outdoors after dark.  Use the headlamp to carefully scan the ground about 15 feet in front of you while slowly walking through areas such as open fields, prairies & pastures (You will find H. carolinensis in places like these since it is a burrowing species).   Wolf spiders are very easily spotted with a headlamp at night because of their eye-shine.  I'll bet that you will find a bunch of them using this method!  Good luck!  

Check this out:
http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/MES/notes/entnote12.html

I've bred H. carolinensis in the past and successfully produced spiderlings years ago.  It was a fun learning experience for me!  This time I want to make this impressive species available captive bred for the pet trade.

---------- Post added 09-17-2012 at 08:22 AM ----------




PrettyHate said:


> I dont know anything about wolf spiders. How big is considered "monster size" for this species?


PrettyHate:  A large adult H. carolinensis has a leg span which is the size of an average man's palm... 3 to 4 inches.

---------- Post added 09-17-2012 at 08:22 AM ----------




The Snark said:


> Odd question. Do spiders have 'throwback' offspring like horses? (Foals reverting to previous generations)


The Snark:  Hmmmmm...  I have no idea!


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## Ciphor (Sep 17, 2012)

Spiders give birth to 50+ offspring. The offspring will be a mix of large, medium, and small spiders. I found this was the case with 6 generations. I would randomly select 3-5 slings and raise them up. Breed with large wild males, and wait for maturity to find results. Results would vary with each generation. Sometimes I'd get my hopes up with a really chunky female, then breed her with a large male, and time passes just to find all the offspring I raised up were medium or smaller. I finally gave up with the 6th generation offspring. Kept 4, 3 turned out to be medium/smaller males (poor luck hitting 3 males) and the one female from 6 generations of selective breeding turned out to be one of the smallest females I've ever seen. I have a feeling if she was in the wild she would have been naturally selected for death before reaching maturity.

I believe selective breeding is a science that works better with mammals, that only birth a single offspring. Just an assumption based on my limited & loose research. You could have better luck. Certainly do not discount it based on one case, I was only sharing, not trying to deter. I also only raised 3-4 slings. If I raised the whole batch, and picked the largest from it, I may have better results. I simply did not have the space or time to do so.


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## Alltheworld601 (Sep 20, 2012)

She is beautiful and I'm fascinated with this.  I wonder why it doesn't work as consistently with spiders as it does with other animals?  Maybe because of the fact that they have so many offspring...i wonder though if the percentage of large ones out of each egg sack would increase as the breeding generations went on?  I would love to see this happen where somebody raised every sling in a sac, and continued on for a few generations, plotting out the numbers.  Get microsoft excel ready. 

Also, is it just me, or do these guys look like small fuzzy 8-legged walruses?  ;-)


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## Legion09 (Sep 20, 2012)

Alltheworld601 said:


> She is beautiful and I'm fascinated with this.  I wonder why it doesn't work as consistently with spiders as it does with other animals?  Maybe because of the fact that they have so many offspring...i wonder though if the percentage of large ones out of each egg sack would increase as the breeding generations went on?  I would love to see this happen where somebody raised every sling in a sac, and continued on for a few generations, plotting out the numbers.  Get microsoft excel ready.
> 
> Also, is it just me, or do these guys look like small fuzzy 8-legged walruses?  ;-)


This would be awesome...but I could see it taking a warehouse sized space real quick...


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## RobynTRR (Sep 24, 2012)

A 4 inch spider that looked like that would get me fairly nervous...


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## Greenjewls (Sep 25, 2012)

I found an area last month and the road was littered with huge H. carolinensis.  I was spotting them from 50yards with eyeshine.  I didn't see any that were less than 3" legspan.  I assume they were all males out looking for fems. I could have grabbed 50 for you if I knew you were interested...   I did keep one for myself, about 1"bl and I'm going to post a video of me measuring it here shortly.  I challenge anyone to show proof of a larger specimen (should be easy as this is just a male)  I may be able to part with this one for your breeding project, and if not I can certainly get you as many as you need next Aug.  Good luck!


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## rm90 (Sep 28, 2012)

I remember the first time I saw one was when I was on the docks at midnight. Freaked me out but now I love them : ) great photos!!


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