I found this spider while digging out a new garden bed- I’m sieving through some topsoil dug from the top 6-8 inches of the ground, and I come across this. Here is what the belly ooks like, and the front view. The large abdomen is about 1/2" across, and 3/4" to 1" long.
Can anyone identify this spider?
For those who are wondering, I resisted my arachnophobic impulses and “relocated” her to the wooded area behind my house, instead of squishing her.
I would have pounded it into the ground with a shovel before I would’ve ever had the chance to identify it.
I hate spiders, although my wife tells me to keep them alive because they help around the house. That is, until they end up in the bed or shower with her.
Looks like a pregneant tarantula to me, but I usually squish the darn things before I get close enough to take pictures. In any case, looks like it’s full of eggs.
That’s a possibility, which would also explain where I found it (dug it from its burrow). The light coloration on the sides and underside of the abdomen don’t look like the (all black, in the linked picture) trapdoor spider, however.
It was a bit smaller than the tarantulas I’ve seen, and it wasn’t hairy. Perhaps it recently molted and the hairs hadn’t grown out yet? I have no idea what a recently molted spider looks like.
When I found it, I was sifting dirt through a sieve I made out of expanded metal. Luckily, I was wearing heavy leather gloves when I ended up with the spider in my hand. After running inside to fetch my camera and change my shorts :o , I couldn’t find the spider, and I hadn’t finished sifting the batch of dirt in the sieve. I very carefully finished separating out all of the gravel & bigger rocks, and took the sieve off the wheelbarrow (after checking all around for the spider). I found her again in the wheelbarrow, on top of the dirt that had passed through the sieve.
If I would have found it inside, it would have been converted to a stain rather quickly.
Good lord. I tell people I’m not afraid of spiders, but we don’t have that kind of spider here! (No, we don’t. If you tell me we do I swear I’ll put one in your Cheerios. Ignorance is bliss sometimes.)
Well, yesterday evening I was working on a landscaping project in my front yard by the foundation of the house. I turned over a large rock. Under the rock was a sorta cave filled with dozens of wolf spiders.
Well, yesterday evening I was working on a landscaping project in my front yard by the foundation of the house. I turned over a large rock. Under the rock was a sorta cave filled with dozens of wolf spiders.
I am not selling, but it was close.>>
You’re making me extremely happy to be stuck with brown recluses. They may kill me one day, but god, I’d have a heart attack if I saw a wolf spider! So creepy looking.
I doubt I’ll remember (first time in many years that I’ve posted a photo link, and I don’t know when I will again). It causes no problems with IE. Maybe you have a spyware problem?
FYI, the best thing to do is just Copy the “Direct Link to Image”. It should be the last option. Just copy and paste that. Then it will go directly to the photo and not to the ‘voting’ and pop-ups.
As for that spider. Holy Crap!!! Why did you just relocate it? I would have given in to my arachnophobic impulses and done something like THIS!
I tried it again. Firefox on my Mac blocks the popunder on that site (and displays a message, so I know it did it). Firefox on my Windows machine doesn’t. Interesting.