Spider ID?

[villenadecorte]

reptiles, i can handle
some insects, no problem
but spiders i just can't function near them! found this one in my closet (which i just reorganized and cleaned last week)
any idea what kind?
here is a what it looked like in the gutter (after i captured him in the cup)



and yes... i did my best girlie scream when i saw it take off when i disturbed it in the closet. that thing was fast!

[natatbeach]

brown recluse??? (sp?) eeeewwww

[Speed]

reptiles, i can handle
some insects, no problem
but spiders i just can't function near them! found this one in my closet (which i just reorganized and cleaned last week)
any idea what kind?
here is a what it looked like in the gutter (after i captured him in the cup)


and yes... i did my best girlie scream when i saw it take off when i disturbed it in the closet. that thing was fast!

I don't think it's a brown recluse. The markings aren't right, and it's too big. Brown recluses usually have a body about a 1/4 of an inch, and with their legs extended, they are about an inch across.

I'm like you. I can handle reptiles, but I don't do spiders!

[Peter_AUS]

I think it is a type of Wolf Spider.

[Kokopeli]

I'm with Peter on this one, I think it's a wolf spider as well.

When these spiders young hatch, one of the parents (the mother, I think) will have her abdomen covered with their young. It looks kinda cool.

[paulnj]

Wolf spider is my call roo.

BTW Rebekah, that's wildlife, so why isn't it in the nature/wildlfe forum We ID everything wild there to the best of our ability.

[TexDot]

Ditto, on Wolf Spider

http://entoplp.okstate.edu/ddd/insects/wolfspider.htm

[Lionheart]

Wolf spider is my vote too. Huntsman spiders are similar but the eyes are different, 2 large conspicous eyes up front, larger jaws. Got lots of these suckers around my place. FAST movers. I took a swat at one on my wall over my bed, about 2inches wide across, and it was 4 feet away when my broom landed. And they get big too-I've seen full grown ones the size of baby tarantulas. Brown recluse spiders are smaller, legs are thinner, less hairy, more translucent legs that are arced more, not like the wolf spiders that tend to lie flatter to the ground.

[RP Racing]

brown recluses have a violin shape on the back of the head.

[tink]

I'd have def screamed like a girl!! I despise the rotton things!

We're fortunate (NOT!) to have these lurking in our closets!

http://amonline.net.au/factsheets/wh...led_spider.htm

Not so impressed when I see one of these curled up in my clothes or shoes on my floor either I tell you!! Not only are they scary looking but they have been known (much debate about this) to leave a nasty ucler to which I've witnessed as a nurse!! Certainly not on my love addiction for wildlilfe that's for sure lol

[natatbeach]

.... will have her abdomen covered with their young. It looks kinda cool.

sound like me on the way out the door to work...

on a spider that just equals = ONE GROSS SPIDER with lots of LITTLE GROSS SPIDERS

I don't know---I like spiders I just don't like the chunky legged ones...

[Lionheart]

I think it is a type of Wolf Spider.

Hi Peter:
I was a zoology major in college, and as I recall, isn't Australia home to the most poisonous spiders in the world? Specifically the Australian funnel web spider (death in 15 minutes to 3 days depending on whether it was a female or male (ten times more deadly) that bit you) and the Redback spider (cousin to our own black widow). The mechanism of the toxins if I recall correctly was rupture of the synaptic membranes releasing neurotransmitters leading to uncontrolled muscle spasms. Or maybe I'm thinking of a different spider...

[Peter_AUS]

Yes we have the Funnel Web Spider here in Australia, it is one of the most deadliest, but bites aren't that common, but are on the rise. The Redback spider although very common to my knowledge maybe responsible for 1 or 2 deaths at most in Aussie history, it really makes people sick etc, redness etc.

There has been a recent discovery of another type of Funnel Web spider that actually lives in trees in the Blue Mountains area, west of Sydney, that might be even more deadly than the normally know Funnel Web.

We also have White Tail Tipped spiders here that are very deadly to tissue, causing tissue destruction rapidly to people that are bitten by them. Quite a horrible sight.

And go figure, your a zoology major doing dental work, how fare ended is that. Bit like Space Jockeys digging ditches.

[RP Racing]

Hi Peter:
I was a zoology major in college, and as I recall, isn't Australia home to the most poisonous spiders in the world? Specifically the Australian funnel web spider (death in 15 minutes to 3 days depending on whether it was a female or male (ten times more deadly) that bit you) and the Redback spider (cousin to our own black widow). The mechanism of the toxins if I recall correctly was rupture of the synaptic membranes releasing neurotransmitters leading to uncontrolled muscle spasms. Or maybe I'm thinking of a different spider...

The SYdney funnel web isnt one you want to muck around with. Myself I prefer snakes.

[villenadecorte]

Thanks all for your feedback!! I figured it was a wolf or hobo spider from the size and markings. eww eww eww. Other than that one, I have this HUGE (like golf ball sized) black one that hangs down from the vent on my chimney in my back yard. Grazed it while pruning my English Lady (we've since uprooted that), its still there after so many months.

Love snakes, lizards, crickets, lady bugs, rolly polleys, etc.... I'll even tolerate flies if I have to... but no spiders for me.

[schrackman]

A golf ball sized black spider? Sure that isn't an exaggeration in size, lol. I laugh because the other day my wife sized up with her hand an alledgedly humongous spider that she saw in the house, and when I found the thing it was actually about 1/4 the size she said it was. :blush2:

Thanks all for your feedback!! I figured it was a wolf or hobo spider from the size and markings. eww eww eww. Other than that one, I have this HUGE (like golf ball sized) black one that hangs down from the vent on my chimney in my back yard. Grazed it while pruning my English Lady (we've since uprooted that), its still there after so many months.

Love snakes, lizards, crickets, lady bugs, rolly polleys, etc.... I'll even tolerate flies if I have to... but no spiders for me.