Wolf spiders are a family of large, hairy and athletic arachnids. Wolf spiders chase their prey down the same way a wolf does, but they hunt alone, not in packs.
There are over 2,400 wolf spider species in 125 genera. The University of Michigan says that Wolf spiders are found throughout the U.S., but they also live in mountains, deserts, rainforests and wetlands.
Wolf spiders are usually brown, gray, black or tan with dark markings. Their coloring helps them hide and catch their prey. The body lengths of the wolf spiders range from a quarter of an inch to over an inch (3 cm) long, not including their legs. The largest wolf spider in the world is from Deserta Grande Island in the Atlantic Ocean and has a leg span of 12 cm. Wolf spiders are usually larger than males.
There is a spider taxonomy.
Kingdom: Animalia.
The phylum is called the Arthropoda.
Arachnida is a class.
Araneae.
The family is called the Lycosidae.
ITIS is the source.
The front or row of wolf spiders has a distinctive eye arrangement, where the front or row is composed of four small anterior eyes of the same size arranged in almost a straight row. The back or anterior row is arranged in a V-pattern with the apex next to the row.
There is a spider in a mountain burrow.
Wolf spiders can bite if threatened, but their venom is not dangerous to humans. Wolf spiders bite humans when they are mishandled or trapped next to the skin. There have never been any serious medical problems caused by a wolf spider bite. The Department of Entomology at the University of Kentucky says that wolf spider bites can be very painful and should not be picked up by hand.
The brown wolf spider can be confused with the brown recluse spider. According to the University of Kentucky, wolves are more likely to be found on the ground than brown recluse spiders. People can tell the spiders apart using size and banding patterns, but brown recluse spiders have no banding on their legs. According to the National Library of Medicine, anyone who has been bitten by a brown recluse spider should seek emergency medical attention.
Wolf spiders are usually solitary animals that prowl in the dark. They are mostly nocturnal and often mistaken for tarantulas. The spiders spend most of their time on the ground, but they can climb trees or other objects if they need to. Their habitats include stream edges, gravel and low vegetation. According to Michigan State University's Plant and Pest Diagnostics, wolf spiders sometimes find their way into houses in crawl spaces and breezeways after they enter near ground level.
Wolf spiders eat insects that are ground-dwelling. According to BioKids, large females can take on small animals. Some species chase down and seize their prey, while others wait for prey to walk by and ambush it. Wolf spiders bite and inject their venom when they jump on their prey, trapping it with their limbs and rolling it over on their backs.
Wolf spiders use a number of tricks to avoid being eaten by lizards, birds and wasp. Wolf spiders can be hunted with a sting and then dragged back to their burrows to lay their eggs.
A rare wolf spider turns up on a British military base.
Female wolf spiders leave scent marks so males can find them. According to the Australian Museum in Sydney, when a male locates a female, they perform a ritual in which the male signals to the female by waving its legs and pedipalps. Female wolf spiders lay several dozen or more eggs and wrap them in silk.
Female wolf spiders carry their egg sacs attached to their spinnerets at the tip of their abdomens. When carrying egg sacs, mothers are known to exhibit aggressive behavior. Sometimes they need to drop their egg sacs to escape. If this happens, females will search frantically to find them again and may even pick up another wolf spider's abandoned egg sac to care for. A study published in the journal Ethology found that the common North American wolf spider can recognize its own egg sacs and is less likely to pick up those of unrelated spiders. The spiders in the study cared for unrelated eggs as if they were their own.
She carries the spiderlings around for several days after they hatch. Spiderlings leave their mothers and go on their own. Female wolf spiders can live for several years, while males can live for one year or less.
Kinky wolf spiders engage in cannibalism.
The University of Nebraska has a graphic that shows the differences between the two types of spider, as well as other species that can be confused with brown recluse spiders. The Bristol Zoological Society and other groups are working to save the Desertas Wolf Spider, a critically-endangered species. To see how wolf spiders move, watch this short video on the internet.
Egg sac recognition and fostering in the wolf spider Pardosa milvina and its effects on spiderling survival is the topic of the Ethology, Volume.
The University of Michigan has a website called BioKids, Animal Diversity Web.
The Bristol Zoological Society has a project called the Desertas Wolf Spider.
The University of Kentucky Department of Entomology has a case file on wolves.
The Pennsylvania State University's College of Agricultural Sciences has Wolf Spiders.
The Integrated Taxonomic Information System was reviewed in 2019.
The National Library of Medicine has an article about the brown recluse spider.
The Missouri Department ofConservation has a field guide for wolf spiders.
Michigan State University has a wolf spider resource.
The Wolf Spider was photographed on December 5, 2014.
The Australian Museum has Wolf Spiders.
The article was first published in December. Patrick Pester updated it on March 7, 2022.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
