Unfamiliar Spider...

[WasK]

This is a spider species I’ve not seen before despite spending my entire life growing up in the Carolinas. My kid found it while hunting tiger beetle larvae. He finds a straight twig and sticks it down larvae burrows in the dirt. The larvae latch on to the twig with their jaws and he pulls them up and out of their holes. He tried this on a burrow that was a little large for tiger beetle larva, and out popped this guy. It is about the size of a quarter in diameter and, as you can see, a real wanker. It definitely prefers fighting to fleeing. Location is a field in Winston Salem, North Carolina. Anyone know what it is?

Cheers,
WK

 

[Scorpendra]

the body shape and eye pattern resemble that of a wolf, but i'm not completely sure. especially since the top pair of front eyes do not dwarf the lower.

awesome looking though, i wish i found one.

 

[CedrikG]

awwwww men this spider is awesome, im not a spider expert at all but this spider looks like a black phoneutria to me ... thats one of the most fantastik spider I saw, congratz on your catch mate

 

[Aviculariinae]

Hi,

Can,t really see the eyes,but i would go with some form of wolf spider.

 

[FryLock]

It's a real find for sure but..

It is about the size of a quarter in diameter and, as you can see, a real wanker.

That W word means something else here .

 

[Scorpendra]

That W word means something else here .

wait...can spiders even do that?

Hi,

Can,t really see the eyes,but i would go with some form of wolf spider.

you have to look closely. that formation of four front and four behind on top definitely calls "lycosa"/"hogna"

 

[WasK]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Yes, its eyes are arranged like a Lycosid. I've just never seen one like this. I don't believe it is particularly dangerous because the only spiders in North America thought of as medically singnificant are Latrodectus spp., Agelenids, and Loxosceles, barring the occasional Phoneutria that comes riding in on a crate of bananas. It does not really resemble any of these spiders.

I prodded it back towards its hole and it went back into the burrow. There were quite a few similar burrows in the area so this spider may not be so rare, but perhaps just reclusive. I've never tried fishing for bugs in burrows with a twig like my son has learned to do. Maybe I would have seen one of these sooner if I had.

I wish I had a name for it to store away with the photographs I took!

Cheers,
WK

 

[WasK]

It's a real find for sure but..
That W word means something else here .

LOL! Please forgive my grasp of slanguage . I had heard the term before somewhere and was under the impression it described someone who was grumpy / belligerent / fitted with a bad attitude, etc. I take it this is incorrect!

Cheers!

 

[Steven]

Could it be Hogna helluo :?

 

[WasK]

Could it be Hogna helluo :?

I suppose it could be. I’m not familiar with that species. Do some of them occur in this blue-black form? The Hogna I see most often here is carolinensis and it definitely is not one of these - its appearance and attitude were completely different, and the Carolina wolf is usually significantly larger than this mystery spider. Here are couple photos of carolinensis I took last year. First one crawled out of an old beer can in the woods near Charleston, SC. Second one was a big male (about 3 inch legspan) that made it into my house last September here in NC.

Cheers,
WK

 

[Lopez]

LOL! Please forgive my grasp of slanguage . I had heard the term before somewhere and was under the impression it described someone who was grumpy / belligerent / fitted with a bad attitude, etc. I take it this is incorrect!

Cheers!

Hehe, well, it is - but it's literal meaning is er....

An Onaninst

 

[WasK]

Thanks Leon for the edification. Learned something new today...

 

[WasK]

For anyone interested, I searched wolf spiders on the internet and, after looking at numerous photos, I believe this spider is a burrowing wolf spider (Geolycosa). I went back to that field this past weekend with my kids and one of them was able to pluck another one of these spiders from a burrow. It was ill-tempered like the first one and is pictured below.

Cheers,
WK

 

[midianholic]

What a beauty it is.