Can you identify this monster?

[Yaquina143]

Hello all,

I am new here and what better way to introduce myself is to show you a new friend.

I was working in my garage and saw this monster crossing the floor clear across the room! His legspan is about 1.25", which for around here is HUGE. I was curious as to what species this is and is it native to Oregon? I don't think I have ever seen anything quite like it and I have lived in this state my whole life.

On another spider forum someone said that it was a trapdoor spider. If so, is this species dangerous? Can it be kept as a pet? Here are some pics of the guy.

 

[LasidoraGT]

it looks like a trapdoor, but im no expert but that looks like one

 

[What]

I am going to go with my best guess and say it is a Antrodiaetidae sp.

That could very well be wrong, but like I said, it is just a best guess.

 

[froggyman]

nope not dangerous....might be agressive but cant really hurt you


and yes it can be kept as a pet...just give it alot of substrate to burrow in and fyi they cant climb glass or smooth plastic

 

[cacoseraph]

well

some species are scopulate and some aren't. i can't see for sure if that one is or not... but it looks like not

i'm trying to make a key for North American mygalomorph (tarantula/trapdoor/purseweb/etc) spiders. perhaps we can use the beginnings here.


if your spider really is not scopulate (scopulae are the "sticky" pads that let some spiders glasswalk) then it can only be from these families ( i think):
Atypidae
Antrodiaetidae
Mecicobothriidae
Ctenizidae

TAXA a) b) c) d) e) f)
Atyp 0  0  0  1  0  1
Antr 0  3  0  1  1* 0
Meci 0  0  0  0  0  0
Cten 0? 2* 0* 1* 1  1*

We can look at the legs to knock off half the remaining choices. If the front legs are shorter and more slender than the back legs than the spider is from families Atyp or Cten. If the legs are all about the same, the spider is from Antr or Meci. It appears all the legs are about the same

TAXA a) b) c) d) e) f)
Antr 0  3  0  1  1* 0
Meci 0  0  0  0  0  0

With only two families left, we simply have to pick one of the characteristics that differs between families.

We can look at the thoracic fovea (depression in middle of back), the caput (the platform the eyes are on), or possibly the rastellum (teeth on the chelicerae used to dig)... but i am not sure about all the taxa for the rastellum (and they are hard to see w/o a good picture of just the right spot)

I can't really see the fovea or the caput well enough in the pics to judge, though

(please note that this is put together from a bunch of different sources from a bunch of different years and should in no way be taken as absolutely correct)
How To Distinguish Between The North American Familes:

Atypidae
Antrodiaetidae
Mecicobothriidae
Dipluridae
Cyrtaucheniidae
Ctenizidae
Nemesiidae
Barychelidae
Theraphosidae


In theory, once each Family has a different set of characteristics we have can make a key to Family
Also, I am trying to find only naked eye morphological characteristics to make this as useful as possible in the field

a) 11 SCOPULATE (adult(?) females are scopulate on tarsi I-II) (0=no taxa member is scopulate, 1=some members are scopulate, 2=all members are scopulate)
b) 8 THORACIC FOVEA (0=open pit (sometimes longitudinal), 1=transverse, 2=very wide, 3=closed and longitudinal)
c) 12 CLAW TUFTS (0=absent, 1=present, 2=both states in taxa)
d) 16 CAPUT (0=low, 1=elevated)
e) 17 RASTELLUM (0=absent, 1=present, 2=both states in taxa)
f) 18 LEG SIZE DIFFERS(0=anterior and posterior legs approximately same size/length, 1=anterior legs shorter and more slender than posterior)

TAXA a) b) c) d) e) f)
Atyp 0  0  0  1  0  1
Antr 0  3  0  1  1* 0
Meci 0  0  0  0  0  0
Dipl 1? 1* 2  0* 0* 0
Cyrt 1  2* 0* 1* 1* 1
Cten 0? 2* 0* 1* 1  1*
Neme 1  1* 0* 0* 2  0*
Bary 1  1  1  0  0  0
Ther 2? 1  1* 0* 0* 0*

(*=not sure if this is the state for the whole taxa)
(the numbers after the character identifier is the character number from Goloboff)


http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/2246/5017/1/N3056.pdf