A Hobo it's not!

[JPD]

Did some collecting in search of the Hobo, (which is actually harder to find than you might think).
Anyway....the top photo is looking good. No obvious banding on the legs. Unbroken, mottled pattern on the carapace

However.....prior to even taking it to the last step...which is examination of the epigynum, the dots on the sternum are the disappointing blow. "If it has spots, then a Hobo it's not"

Probably just a T.domestica or T.gigantea. My money is with the latter.

 

[JPD]

On a side note, here is an interesting little tidbit.
When my daughter and I found a promising sheet-web built just in front of a crevice in the bricks on the front of her school, I attempted to rouse the female from her hide. As she started to emerge, we were both taken aback by the sheer size of the spider that we saw coming out. Perhaps a wayward twitch on my part forced her back in so we decided to come back later with a tube in which to blow air through.
When we arrived back at the spot with the tube in place, we quickly set-up shop and commenced blowing. I noticed an eggsac just inside the crevice and when the spider emerged, I must say I was disappointed in her size compared to that which we had both witnessed just an hour prior.
I managed to remove "her" and the eggsac. "She" quickly converged on the eggsac as many of us have witnessed with various species in order to protect her goods.
"She" continued to cautiously guard the eggsac until I transfered it into an escape proof container.
Well..........I pulled her out to start the identification process and as I did the initial exam, quickly noticed, the presence of "bulbs" at which point I realized that I had actually removed the male. This would explain the size difference in the spider that we initially observed.
I am curious to find out if anyone has ever observed a male guard an eggsac before?
Pretty interesting behavior.
I will head back out later today to attempt to extract the female.
These are probably T.gigantea.
So....of the 6 promising spiders that I collected in hopes of finding a Hobo, I got skunked.

 

[Cooper]

I saw a thread not to long ago in which a male avic avic was sharing guard of an eggsac with a female.