# Spider ID



## ICEGUY (Aug 2, 2003)

Saw this big spider on my deer blind while brush hogging,, type of orb spider?


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## Cork Dust (Nov 26, 2012)

i think it is a lycosid.or a geolycosid.. these are called wolf spiders and are hunters on the forest floor. Take your headlamp and shine it around in the leaf litter at night and you will note the reflections of the eyes, one of the key characteristics to ID spiders is how their multiple eyes are arrayed and how many they have in what patterns. I lean toward lycosidae because it was moving around when you spotted it and its front legs are not expanded for digging. Geolycosa sp. dig pits with a burrow at their base. The spin silk to form a trap door that is actuated when an inscect tumbles into the pit, signalling the waiting spider that dinner is served. Invertebrate zoology was a long time ago, but, from what I recall the tarantulas are a relative of wolf spider. Pisaurids and crab spiders are two other hunter spiders.


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## jrose (Aug 17, 2011)

Cork Dust said:


> i think it is a lycosid.or a geolycosid.. these are called wolf spiders and are hunters on the forest floor. Take your headlamp and shine it around in the leaf litter at night and you will note the reflections of the eyes, one of the key characteristics to ID spiders is how their multiple eyes are arrayed and how many they have in what patterns. I lean toward lycosidae because it was moving around when you spotted it and its front legs are not expanded for digging. Geolycosa sp. dig pits with a burrow at their base. The spin silk to form a trap door that is actuated when an inscect tumbles into the pit, signalling the waiting spider that dinner is served. Invertebrate zoology was a long time ago, but, from what I recall the tarantulas are a relative of wolf spider. Pisaurids and crab spiders are two other hunter spiders.


Now I know who to go to with any spider questions! LOL!


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