Spider ID

[TroyMcClureOG82]

I found a small spider in my house. I live in Southern California. It almost looks like a Carlsbad green sling, but I think it's most likely Dysdera crocata. It's abdomen is a dark color though, unlike most Dysdera crocata. Sorry I don't have any pics.

 

[TroyMcClureOG82]

[http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/troymcclureog82/my_photos

Ok, I have pics now. If you go to that link they are in the album labeled spider. There are also two other pics, one of what I believe to be Steatoda grossa I'd appreciate it if anybody can confirm that as well. The other is of a female Latrodectus hesperus and the male she is feeding on.

The spider I am looking for ID on is in the third pic. When I took the pics it started to urticate hairs from it's abdomen which is characteristic of tarantulas. I'm not sure what to think

 

[MrDeranged]

You'll have more chance of an answer here in the correct forum where this question should have been posted in the first place...

Scott

 

[TroyMcClureOG82]

Sorry, I'm new around here and figured since 3 Xs as many people are viewing the T forum at any given time I'd get an answer there. I also found it appropriate since the little spider looks like a tarantula

 

[David_F]

I would say it's a grass spider. The pic is a bit distant though so kind of hard to tell.

 

[TroyMcClureOG82]

No, it's not a grass spider. It was really hard for me to get a good pic though. It looks almost exactly like the pic I found of this hobo spider, although hobos aren't know to be found in California. My sister did get a nasty bite a couple of months ago that fits the description of a hobo spider. The hospital blamed either a black widow or brown recluse, but we don't have recluses around here and her sympton were nothing like a black widow bite

http://media.collegepublisher.com/media/paper243/stills/97yp6xti.jpg

Her bite looked a lot like this one except slightly more mild. It was pretty bad though and the infection lasted for about two weeks. Months later and fully healed she still has a dent in her shin

http://www.srv.net/~dkv/hobospider/hobobite.jpg

 

[JJJoshua]

It does look grass spiderish, but it could also be a wolf spider. I know that some grass spiders and wolf spiders look alot alike. If you look at Agelenopsis sp. and Lycosa lenta they both have similiar markings.

 

[Elizabeth]

It is hard to guess from just the pic, but the two legs forward/two legs back makes me think it is not a tarantula. More likely, it is a wolf spider. They get around. If it was on the ground, or at least on something not so far from the ground (it's on a light, right?), then I would also consider the ground spiders, Gnaphosidae, as those can look T-like in body shape and coloration, but again, the placement of the legs, etc., they DON'T look like a T on closer observation. (BTW, did you know that for positive spider IDs, one is supposed to look at the eyes: number and placement, and the shape of the carapace, and sometimes the hairs on the legs...Basically, you have to have a very cooperative spider (as in dead) to place under a microscope if it isn't one of the extremely well-known spiders already. But that doesn't stop any of us from guessing!)

Anyway, about your sister's bite:

1) Individual reactions to a spider bite vary, and they can vary in the extreme.

2) There are spiders or other insects that can give a person quite an irritating bite, complete with a little blister in the center, swollen red area, painful intense itching, can take weeks or months to heal, and such bites could get infected because, say, the person scratches it a lot with daily-dirty nails. People tend to think that if the bite is especially nasty, that it must have come from some terrifically toxic creature. No, fear not, or fear more, there are a lot of biters out there than can bring up a scary welt if you think they only come from deathly toxic or necrotizingly toxic spiders.

How old was your sister? Children and elderly can have bigger reactions.

Does she have a weaker immune system than others? Does she have allergies?

Did you catch or see the biting culprit? If you didn't at least see it, then you don't even know if it was a spider (and neither do the doctors). If you didn't catch it and get it IDed positively, then you probably shouldn't even theorize that it was any special type of creature.

Lastly, most doctors don't know much, if anything, about insect or spider bites, but (hint, hint) they know how to give people answers that stop the questions from coming. That, coupled with the belief that they do know the most probable explanation, will lead too many of them to diagnose what caused the irritation when they have no business even trying without a body or a very good description from a reliable witness.

Boy, this was a lot of typing! I hope you see it as helpful.

 

[Malhavoc's]

I've caught this type before. As far as I know they make a hammack web sheet type like a grass spider but its not too similiar. the bite of these is harmless doesnt even pierce the skin. they due use webs to hunt but also crawl around like wofls. sorry I can't give a scientific name but I can help you with what their not? lol

Its not a tanrantula only 2 book lungs. so its areanomorph. Red-brown hars line its cephlathorax. while silver hairs line its abdomen. also, it has long spinneretes and from its behavior it webs a good deal. also it is terestial.