What am I?

[protheus]

Hey everybody,

What's this:

http://seabrook.aurdev.com/~protheus/spider/

Found it on the floor. I'm thinking lycosa, but does somebody who knows spiders better have any other ideas? The pictures aren't great; combination of cheap camera/not great lighting. The spider has a stripe down the middle, which you see in some pictures, and leopard dots on the abdomen, which are too close to the dark brown color of the spider to pick up well.

P.S. Legspan is about 2"

Chris

 

[skinheaddave]

Well, it is probably a spider ... the pictures really aren't good enough to ID. Eye arrangement seems to be a major factor in the ID of spiders so a description or picture of the pattern would be really useful.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[protheus]

Well, it is probably a spider ... the pictures really aren't good enough to ID. Eye arrangement seems to be a major factor in the ID of spiders so a description or picture of the pattern would be really useful.

Haven't been able to see the eyes yet, but IIRC lycosa are supposed to have "eyeshine," aren't they?

Chris

 

[Wade]

Many spiders can have eyeshine, which is simply light reflecting from the back of the eyes. Mainly you see this in species with large eyes, which the Lycosidae have. The shape is certainly right for Lycosidae, but without a better picture positive ID isn't possible. Most of the NA Lycosids that were formally in the genus Lycosa are now in Hogna, btw.

Wade

 

[protheus]

Better picture of an almost identical spider here:

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=24754

Also, this one looks similar -- listed as Lycosa godeffroyi

http://www.usq.edu.au/spider/find/spiders/images/409B10.jpg

Chris

 

[skinheaddave]

You really ought to focus on eye arangement first. Check out this thread: http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=25513 first and see if the eyes are aranged in a similar manner. There should be three rows.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Venom]

From your pics, and the identical spider in the links, I'd say you have Hogna helluo ( wolf spider species ). They're a lot of fun if you're into the true spiders. I've had several, and they were all voracious cricket slayers.

 

[protheus]

You really ought to focus on eye arangement first.

Checked it over the weekend; its eyes are in a similar layout to this, and other wolf spiders I've seen.

Chris