Who is this handsome lycosid?

[klawfran3]

This guy was found in Southern Utah, there have been a number of them around recently. He's just so good looking with a jet black body and the orange chelicerae. I found a few female burrows that I released him near so hopefully he can find a mate.

I've tried very hard to find a photo of one online that matches, but no one seems to have a good ID. I figured someone here would!

 

[DomGom TheFather]

That's Charles.
Good guy. Great spades partner.

 

[aprilmayjunebugs]

He's beautiful and mature, I can tell you that much.

 

[jbooth]

Absolutely beautiful!
I'd go in the Geolycosa direction. I can't really tell the head shape, but it's very smooth looking, and many have the bright "something's in this hole" chelicerae.

 

[klawfran3]

Absolutely beautiful!
I'd go in the Geolycosa direction. I can't really tell the head shape, but it's very smooth looking, and many have the bright "something's in this hole" chelicerae.

Closest I can find is Geolycosa rafaelana, but those don't seem to have orange chelicerae. I wonder what the female of this species look like, eg. If they're sexually dimorphic or dichromic.

I'm gonna be very disappointed if we can't nail it down to a specific species!

 

[coolnweird]

Handsome fella!! Hope he found a lady friend and made lots of beautiful babies

 

[jbooth]

Closest I can find is Geolycosa rafaelana, but those don't seem to have orange chelicerae. I wonder what the female of this species look like, eg. If they're sexually dimorphic or dichromic.

I'm gonna be very disappointed if we can't nail it down to a specific species!

Well, it might look like this lol. Pulled out of a hole on Monday, looks gravid. Hopefully it will move into the starter burrow, get comfortable, make a fertile sack, not eat it, and give me some spiderlings! A lot to ask. I was thinking G. rafaelana for this one too, but the only really close pictures I've seen don't match anything. Flooded out of burrow in southern Colorado ~7000ft edge of desert, cactus and trees... In flash the chelicerae look orange, a lot of that could be how far from molts too/fading. Definitely a brown spider, have no clue about sexual dimorphism in these.

 

[CRX]

It is interesting. There is a huntsman species that has been well known in northeast Australia (I THINK Queensland but could be wrong) for quite a while now, it also has orange chelicerae, and theres several detailed photos of it and detailed sightings, but to this day it is not a recognized "officially" species, no one knows what it actually is. EVEN THOUGH we know it literally exists. From tons of photos.

 

[jbooth]

It is interesting. There is a huntsman species that has been well known in northeast Australia (I THINK Queensland but could be wrong) for quite a while now, it also has orange chelicerae, and theres several detailed photos of it and detailed sightings, but to this day it is not a recognized "officially" species even though no one knows what it actually is. EVEN THOUGH we know it literally exists.

Wasn't that trapdoor wolf spider discovered fairly recently there? I wouldn't be surprised if there is something like that in North America, and surely more undiscovered Geolycosa... The fossorial ones are hard to find sometimes.

 

[CRX]

Wasn't that trapdoor wolf spider discovered fairly recently there? I wouldn't be surprised if there is something like that in North America, and surely more undiscovered Geolycosa... The fossorial ones are hard to find sometimes.

I think you're referring the "giant" trapdoor that was found not long ago, But nah, I'm talking about an actual orange lipped huntsman species. Pictures of it have even been posted on here before, I've seen them. I'm sure they're still on here. And it was recent.

 

[jbooth]

I think you're referring the "giant" trapdoor that was found not long ago, But nah, I'm talking about an actual orange lipped huntsman species. Pictures of it have even been posted on here before, I've seen them. I'm sure they're still on here. And it was recent.

No there's an actual lycosidae that has a lid down there, kinda Hogna looking There's a vid or two on youtube.. That huntsman does sound cool, hopefully someone can catch some specimens and get them described or at least into the hobby.

 

[klawfran3]

No there's an actual lycosidae that has a lid down there, kinda Hogna looking There's a vid or two on youtube.. That huntsman does sound cool, hopefully someone can catch some specimens and get them described or at least into the hobby.

I'm hoping that I can find a female of this species and see what they look like. There's dozens of males wandering around so I'm gonna catch a few, find some Geolycosa burrows, and plop them next to them and see if they do mating behaviors. If they do I'll catch a couple girls and see if I can raise the slings up.

 

[jbooth]

I'm hoping that I can find a female of this species and see what they look like. There's dozens of males wandering around so I'm gonna catch a few, find some Geolycosa burrows, and plop them next to them and see if they do mating behaviors. If they do I'll catch a couple girls and see if I can raise the slings up.

Try just following them.. some of the burrows might not be Geolycosa, or female, the males just walked out of similar burrows, and at least here every other burrow is H. carolinensis. Good luck! I was about to try following my male H. carolinesis but I dug up a female with an eggsac, thinking it was an Aphonopelma burrow a couple of days ago.

 

[jbooth]

Any luck finding a female? I'm also really curious if the males return to their burrows after mating/searching, have a meal, make a sperm web, and try again... My hypothesis is they do, unless they know they are on the way out or have zero luck finding a female locally. At least the true burrowers like these and H. carolinensis.

 

[Isaax Critterz]

Try just following them.. some of the burrows might not be Geolycosa, or female, the males just walked out of similar burrows, and at least here every other burrow is H. carolinensis. Good luck! I was about to try following my male H. carolinesis but I dug up a female with an eggsac, thinking it was an Aphonopelma burrow a couple of days ago. View attachment 445269 View attachment 445271 View attachment 445270

I don't recommend digging up a mother spider.

 

[klawfran3]

Any luck finding a female? I'm also really curious if the males return to their burrows after mating/searching, have a meal, make a sperm web, and try again... My hypothesis is they do, unless they know they are on the way out or have zero luck finding a female locally. At least the true burrowers like these and H. carolinensis.

Didn't manage to I found a few Geolycosa burrows and even got a large grey female out of them, but I wasn't able to find any males and attempt mating to see if they're the same species.

 

[jbooth]

Didn't manage to I found a few Geolycosa burrows and even got a large grey female out of them, but I wasn't able to find any males and attempt mating to see if they're the same species.

They probably were the same species, there is a lot of color variation I think. Pretty sure this one is missouriensis now, but it's brown and tan and the other one I caught that I for sure knew was missouriensis was black and grey and really bright yellow chelicerae. This one is burrowing for me, I'm pretty stoked, haven't had much luck with these. The tower of "needs more substrate". Probably screwed for a male.