100 Species #17: Northern Wolf Spider

[urbpan]

A Northern Wolf Spider Alopecosa aculeata refuses to hold still for long on my hand.

My step daughter turned this spider up while doing some yard work. She asked why it was called a wolf spider and I explained that it was its mournful howl during nights illuminated by the full moon, and that it hunts in packs and has a rigid family social structure. Actually none of that is true; I didn't even tell her that, but maybe I will next time she asks. Wolf spiders were probably named that back when wolves were hated pests that preyed on livestock, not honorable keystone species found on t shirts in stores that smell like incense. Wolf spiders hunt alone, like most other spiders, and do so without spinning a web. They chase down their prey, which is probably the wolfiest thing about them.


I made my identification mostly from this photo, which shows the orientation of the eyes (crucial when identifying spider) and some other details. If I am right (and I surely could be wrong--identifying spiders to species mostly involves looking at spider genitals under microscopes) then this is a species found throughout the northern hemisphere. The scientific name translates more or less to "Fox spider." I suppose that might be more apt: foxes usually hunt alone, and pounce on their prey. I'd want a "fox spider" to be reddish orange, though. This is a new species to this blog! Previously I have featured other wolf spiders as a "more urban species" entry, and as a curiosity found at Cutler Park (in Dedham before we lived in Dedham!)

Comments

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

purty :) i still find it amazing i find spiders mid winter

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[ndozo.livejournal.com]

I think it ate one of your fingers.

[octogirlie.livejournal.com]

Its legs are transparent!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Just liquid in a thin shell of chitin!

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Lovely Lycosid! I always thought "Wolf" was because they chase down their prey and mothers carry and tend to their offspring for ages...

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, the parental care. I should have guessed that had a part in the naming, what with Romulus and Remus.

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

I adore spiders, and a good friend of mine is so very, very phobic. (You can't even say the word to her or she'll get twitchy.) I wish there were something I could do to get her over this....

[bill_sheehan.livejournal.com]

Do I assume correctly that the spider's mandibles are too small to bite your hand?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

According to wirrrn (a real-life entomologist, even though I only know him on the internet), all wolf spiders have fangs capable of piercing human skin. I hasten to add that in all my years of handling bugs and centipedes and spiders and such, I have never been bitten by a spider. Stung by wasps, and bitten by ants and beetles and such, but never bitten by a spider.

(Spider mouthparts are called Chelicerae, by the way; mandibles are the mouthparts of insects and crustaceans. This is important to people who study such things, to the bafflement of everyone else.)

[m0053.livejournal.com]

BEAUTIFUL picture! I'm so enjoying the spring posts! Gleeee.

[m0053.livejournal.com]

As an afterthought, perhaps it's not spring for you yet. It's definitely spring here though XD

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's spring for us, even though we're expecting snow tonight!