Spido

[mbs357]

Hi lol,
I found this guy in the bathroom a few weeks ago (being around moisture is a clue...), decided to keep him.
I've got him in a 14 or so by 8 inch tank with (way too much) Bed-A-Beast for soil.
I believe he is a wolf spider, but his behavior seems to contradict what I've read about them (what I've read hints that maybe he's a Rabid Wolf Spider?).
He seems to enjoy small crickets just fine.
So basically I'm asking for an ID, and information on caring for whatever he is.
His name is Spido, by the way.
I'm sorry for the poor quality of the photo.
It's an old camera and a hard tank to take pictures of. He also prefers the ceiling over the soil. I can take another if this isn't enough. More information is also only an ask away.
Thanks, <3

(ps keli rules.)
Crap, the attachment totally didn't work. Working on it now...
Fixed. Image was too big. Clickable Thumbnail.

Jesus, that was too hard...

 

[KUJordan]

actually, the photo doesn't really have any quality- there is NO photo. if there was, i'd try to ID Spido.

 

[mbs357]

It's totally fixed now.
<3

 

[8+)]

Still not a good pic. The coloration and legs make me think Kukulcania sp.

The only thing is that it looks more like how the males look, and I kinda thought that once they matured they probably didn't feed any more. I'm not sure about that though.

Look here: http://bugguide.net/node/view/26205/bgimage

 

[mbs357]

There are a few pictures in the second list (K. Herbernalis) that look a LOT like him (her?).
Especially this one.
http://bugguide.net/node/view/88247/bgimage
Would information be helpful or just more pics?

Just tried to take another picture, but the camera died just before I snapped it.
Guess I shouldn't have left it on this morning and forgot about it.
Oops.
Batteries are charging, will try again tomorrow. =\

 

[8+)]

K. hibernalis is very common here in the south. While I'm used to seeing a darker color on the females, that pic shows coloration like yours. Go back and look at the pics of the webbing. I would be surprised if they don't look very familiar to you.

If it is a female K. hibernalis, it was probably hungry and/or thirsty. Otherwise, it probably wouldn't have been wondering about, especially if you found it during the day. I would put a piece of wadded up wet paper towel in there so it can get a drink. I think this spider is capable of getting it's water exclusively from it's prey, but it will drink if dehydrated.

One neat thing about this spider as a captive, is that they are very long lived for true spiders. The females are said to live up to eight years or even more.

If you plan to keep it, you might want to setup some sort of retreat so it can make it's typical web. You wouldn't see it much, except when it's working on the web and catching prey. They are pretty interesting to watch build a web. They use their hind leg in a side to side motion to feather the web radii.

If it's not Kukulcania then I wasted some typing! One question to help identify: does it catch it's prey using a web, or as the cricket crawls over a web, or does it seem to see the cricket and go after it?

 

[mbs357]

Water - I have a sponge in the tank, which I believe should work well (as long as I clean it, right?).

Eating - This is why I didn't think he was a wolf spider...
I've read that wolf spiders are very active hunters (that apparently don't even make webs), chasing down the prey.
But I never see Spido pounce, or do anything when I put a cricket in the tank. When I do, I wait a while and nothing happens, but come back a bit later and he's chewing on it in his usual corner.
I did put one in his tank this morning that he apparently tied up on the ceiling to save for later.

Shelter - As for retreats, I've been looking into what'd be a good thing to give him. Problem is, I mistook the block of Bed-A-Beast for just plain ol' soil...so I got the big one to make sure I had enough dirt between him and the plastic. What I'm trying to say is I got the 40 gallon sized ones when I should have gotten the 2 gallon sized one.
So there really isn't much room to just plop something down. I want to dig around and set something nice in there, but I'm afraid of him escaping as he hangs out just at the corner of the door...no problems yet though.

Webbing - Can't believe I didn't notice before, but I have webs identical to those in the pics in a few spots in my house, one right next to my chair here, heh. The web in the tank is small and thin, but it is taking on the characteristics.

I'm honestly amazed you recognized him through the photo, which is a lot blurrier than I remember. I guess it was the colors. :3 Thanks. <3

 

[mbs357]

Finally got home.
I just can't manage to get a picture of him in a good spot, he's always on the ceiling.

 

[8+)]

Looks like K. hibernalis too me still.

Sponge should be fine for water.

You probably don't need any substrate with this girl (looks female to me), but if you want to, just take a hatchet or knife and break a sliver of that brick off and add some water to it. You'll be surprised how much water it soaks up and how much it expands,

As for a hide, anything with a crevice or small hole should work. Even some rock stacked in there should be sufficient.

If you're scared about her getting away while you're working on her home, just set the lid right side up on a flat surface. They're pretty slow movers anyway.

Have fun with her!

BTW, I notice this is your first thread here and yet you put Spido in a Kritter Keeper. Did you already have it? If yes, what pets do you/did you have?

 

[mbs357]

Nope, she's my first spider!
I found her on the floor of my bathroom one night and after I grabbed a towel I spotted her on the floor. I have really bad eyesight so I thought she was a piece of trash or something, but realizing what she was I got an empty CD spool and scooped her up. The next day I got a cheap $5 hermit crab style keeper from Wal-Mart. That weekend I went to an Animal Jungle in Virginia Beach, got her this tank (Which is short, and long, because I read that wolf's are better with horizontal space over vertical) and the big block of substrate (which, like I said, I didn't know would expand so much, so I chunked the whole thing in a bucket and poured water in it. >) as well as some small crickets with their own cricket keeper. I'm in the process of getting a larger (about the same length and width wise but much more vertical room) fish tank to put her in. The only thing I've really worried about was transferring her to the new tank. Hopefully, like you said, she'll be slow and I can get her in no problem. :3
It wont be long now, when I get the new tank I'll post the set up in this thread (or a new one if this one gets too far back).

By the way, almost forgot...for shelter I had put a fish tank decoration cave thing in with her...but she didn't seem to like it. It was so tall that it nearly touched the lid of the tank, and was near the door, so I took it out. Plus it was fugly.

 

[mbs357]

Also, another question.
The crickets I get for her are about the same size as her body.
About how often should I feed her?

 

[8+)]

I would think she'd be perfectly happy in the KK you have her in. Once she's settled in and getting food and water, she really only needs the area of her web.

Is she still on the lid? I would have thought she would find that too drafty, but if she's still there I'm sure she's made a nice retreat by now.

If your feeding her crickets the size of her body she really wouldn't need to eat but once a month or so! Especially if you give a her drink now and then. I know that may seem hard to believe, but that is part of their survival strategy: have a metabolism slow enough to be able to just place your web in an advantageous spot and sit and wait patiently for an insect to happen along. They probably try to get as fat as possible and then may have to go the whole winter without eating.

I suggest you feed her smaller crickets more frequently, I you want to keep seeing her eat.

Don't be surprised if in the summer you see what looks like a different kind of spider trying to get to her. It will be a thin light brown spider with longer legs and long conspicuous pedipalps-the little leg looking things right by the fangs. This will be a male wanting to breed.

 

[mbs357]

Heyo. Sorry, but I forgot about you guys. ;D Work got busy.
Anyway, wanted to say thanks for the last reply, and sorry for the resurrection here.
But I got another spider that is shaped very similar to Spido, but with tiger like stripes all over.
Just wondering if this is a totally different spider or if they're related.
Also, what'd happen if I put them in a tank together (space is tight)?

 

[gunslinger]

They are probably different. I dont think there is a K. hibernaliswith striping.........if that is in fact what you have from the first pic.

I would advise against putting them together. Even spiders of the same species kill each other.

 

[mbs357]

Yea I figured they would.
How common is it for two different species of spider to be physically identical but with different markings?
Oh and yes, she still hangs out on the lid.
She's got a huge mass of webbing in the corner that she hides behind. I don't know how sensitive she is to draft, but this is a fairly undrafty room and she's in a very undrafty spot. ;D
Attack of the blurry photos again.
But at least you can see that there are indeed stripes.

 

[gunslinger]

Its really hard to tell from these photos but to me they dont look alike at all. The body proportions are different, their stances are different, etc.

The 2nd one looks like it might be Dolomedes tenebrosus, though its really hard to tell anything...............

 

[8+)]

Yeah, definitely not K. hibernalis. I also thought it might be a Dolomedes tenebrous by the way it's holding it's legs and the color pattern, but she said it hides in a mass of web. Maybe a funnel web weaver of some kind? Is there a Tegenaria that has patterns on the legs like that? I saw a pic of T. ferruginea that looks very similar, but it's European.

Can you take a better pic, with a size reference?

Anyway to someone that's not used to identifying spiders, I can see where they might look similar in shape, even though they look quite dissimilar to us. mbs357 thought the first one looked like a wolf spider...

BTW, I take it she's doing fine?

 

[mbs357]

Yes, my girlfriend noticed the stance difference first off, and thought maybe it was wounded.
I'll try to get a better picture...my camera is a really old Kodak DC3200...
It's not really made for...taking pictures.
Oh, no, Spido (the first one, brown), has made a huge web inside her tank, but Tigo (I'm sorry...) hasn't had the chance to make a web yet. He/she is currently in a spare Cricket Keeper.
Ok, here's a picture. I'm afraid this is probably as good as it can get with this crappy camera. The sunlight and my lamp helps (first pic was taken in complete dark with flashlight).
This camera is pretty picky about distance and light, and I've yet to get used to it.

 

[mbs357]

Hey, my amazing girlfriend found a pic in another thread of a spider that looks very similar to my new one.
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=90695

 

[gunslinger]

Pretty much what I suspected from the pic, if thats what you got its Dolomedes tenbrosus, a fishing spider ( as Im sure you read in the other post) They are very cool.