Categories

Possible trapdoor spider?
Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 3:06 PM
Hi there,
I found this specimen on my porch in the last stages of life. It is black and appears to have a light brown bulbous sac at one end. Also, it looks like it has ten legs. Is it a trapdoor spider perhaps?
Many thanks,
Patrick Cates
Echo Park, Los Angeles, CA 90026

California Trapdoor Spider

Hi Patrick,
Greetings from Mount Washington, across the Los Angeles River.  This is a male California Trapdoor Spider, Bothriocyrtum californicum.  Thanks to human expansion into their habitat, they are becoming increasingly rarer in the Los Angeles area.  During the rainy season, we would encounter male California Trapdoor Spiders searching for the burrows of prospective mates in the hills of Glassell Park when we lived there, and in our current location in Mount Washington.  Your proximity to Elyssian Park is probably a contributing factor to this encounter.  Charles Hogue, in his book Insects of the Los Angeles Basin, wrote:  “The spider prefers to build its nest on sunny south-facing dry hillsides, which in the spring bear a thick covering of short grasses and low herbs.  Such areas are becoming increasingly rare in the basin … .”  Just today, we pitched an article idea for our local newsletter entitled “Look What Crawled Out in the Rain” with the intention of writing about both the California Trapdoor Spider and the Potato Bug.

Related Posts

1. Male Trapdoor Spider (July 4, 2008)
2. California Trapdoor Spider: Male Spiders emerge with the rain (October 15, 2009)
3. Male California Trapdoor Spider in Mount Washington ()
4. Another Male California Trapdoor Spider (October 17, 2009)
5. Trapdoor Spider (January 1, 2010)