Larger black and brown spider maybe tarantula
Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 7:50 PM
We live in Dayton Nevada 15 miles from Carson City Nevada. My husband found this spider about 2 weeks ago underneath a board outside. In the last 2 weeks he/she has doubled in size and loves crickets. When we first found him/her was half the size it is now ( body is about 1 inch long and with the legs about an inch and 1/2 long. When we first found him/her it was all black now the rear end of the spider is a silky brown very short hair on the rear end and two back legs, upper part of the body is slick looking as well as the front two sets of legs. It appears that there is a set of eyes in the middle of the head, almost in a prymaid looking area. The spider has very larger feeder arms on the front as well.
The spider really doesn’t make webs, it seems that it only webs so that it can’t eat whatever it has bitten. So is this a baby tarantula? Thanks for your help.
Jennifer DeForest
Dayton Nevada
probably Crevice Weaver Spider
Hi Jennifer,
All of your photos are quite blurry, but we believe this may be a young Tarantula in the genus Aphonopelma since the markings match some images posted to BugGuide. We will contact Eric Eaton to see if he is more certain. Is this spider now being kept in captivity? Are you, by chance, related to our good friend John who is a landscape architect in Laguna?
Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:20:17 -0800 (PST)
Daniel:
You aren’t kidding about “blurry.” LOL! Impossible to be certain, but I think that the spider is a “crevice weaver” in the family Filistatidae. They should stop feeding the thing for awhile, too. Spiders are opportunistic predators, and will overeat if fed too regularly (in the wild they don’t know when the next meal is coming).
There are some great images of filistatids over at Bugguide that they can compare to. I’m pretty certain this is not a tarantula.
Eric
UPdate:
Here is an after thought, I was researching on bug guide and I believe now that this is either a trapdoor spider or a Crevice Weavers (Filistatidae) »Kukulcania I can not tell which. After looking through the pictures and looking at my spider, I see that he has bands on his legs where they attach to the body. I would better describe the hair as velvet looking. I just can not decided which spider he is and if it is a he or a she. I have also noticed he has atleast 1 dimple on his butt, and no spinnerets. I am unsure if either of these spiders are supposed to be in my area.
Thanks for all your help.
Jennifer DeForest
scary-looking spider in Guyana
Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 12:15 PM
Hi,
I have been unsuccessfull in finding this spider on the internet. It was photographed in Guyana (Atta rainforest) in 2006. Can you help?
Erik Zandboer
Atta rainforest, Guyana
Unknown Spider from Guyana
Hi Erik,
We are sorry, but we cannot identify your spider. Perhaps one of our readers will be able to assist. Many rain forest creatures are not identified, or are poorly described.
tarantula in costa rica?
Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 3:00 PM
hi there,
we found this one taking refuge from the rain last night in our room near san isidro, costa rica… wondering if you can tell us what it is and whether it’s f or m?
thanks so much!
kyla
san isidro, costa rica
Unknown Tarantula from Costa Rica
Hi Kyla,
After searching the images on the Tarantula Photo Gallery Website, we don’t feel that we have the necessary skills to provide you with an accurate identification. There are not enough similarities to make the Costa Rican Tigerump , Cyclosternum fasciatum, a definite positive ID. We couldn’t find a satisfactory match on the Gallery of Tarantulas webpage, but there are several species from Venezuala and Costa Rica named Suntigers. The dark diamond pattern between the red markings on your specimen is very distinctive, and doesn’t match anything we can find. After 45 minutes of unsuccessful searching, the best we can do is to post your image and hope an Arachnophile has the answers to your questions.
Update: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:52:56 -0800 (PST)
Hi, Daniel:
I suspect the ornate tarantula from Costa Rica is a juvenile specimen, in which case there is no telling what gender it is. Males do not get their secondary sexual characteristics until their final molt into adulthood. Many species can be quite colorful as immatures, while being rather “dull” in color as adults. Not sure if anyone will be able to conclude the identification if it ‘is’ a baby.
Eric
Huge unknown insect from Brazil
Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 3:18 AM
Thanks for identification, and here are the spider pics. Imagine this making
a run for inside you house. This is not one of the spiders I would want to
swallow in my sleep. Part of the fun of living somewhere like brazil is all
of the new things you see everyday (that and the pretty girls in bikinis)
Dave
Florianopolis, Brazil
Tarantula
Thanks for sending us your Tarantula image Dave. We are posting the image of you with the Tarantula for scale. Regarding your comment about swallowing the Tarantula, we heard in the past from entomophagy expert David Gracer that Tarantulas are edible once the stinging hairs are singed off. Finally, we always thought swimsuits were optional in Brazil.
Tarantula with Dave for scale
2
Spider In Kandooma Maldives
Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 12:13 PM
Dear bugman, We found this spider in out open-air bathroom in December, on Kandooma Island, Maldives. It seems to have some legs missing. The tiles were approx an inch square so it gives some idea that this spider was approx 3 inches across. My daughter has worked on the island for 9 months and it’s the first time she ever saw one there. What was it & was it poisonous? Thanksso much, Edwina from UK.
Edwina
Kandooma Island, Maldives
Giant Crab Spider
Hi Edwina,
This is a Giant Crab Spider in the family Sparassidae, but we are unable to identify the species. Many spiders in this family are nocturnal hunters that do not build webs. We frequently see individuals from the genus Olios with missing legs. The Giant Crab Spiders are sometimes called Huntsman Spiders.
Poor guy
Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 8:22 AM
Any idea for either the moth or spider?
Photographed in the Langeberg Range in South Africa in montane fynbos ecosystem. Photo is attached
Brett
Langeberg Range in South Africa
Crab Spider catches Moth
Hi again Brett,
We haven’t a clue about the moth, but the spider is a Crab Spider in the family Thomisidae. Crab Spiders don’t build webs, and many species sit camouflaged in flowers awaiting pollinating insects.
Update: Crab Spider eats unknown Moth in South Africa
Tue, Jan 6, 2009
Hi Daniel:
I can’t resist a twofer. The photo provides only a partial underside view of the moth, which looks like a Geometrid to me. Unfortunately, from the perspective of providing an identification, West Cape Province has over a 100 species of Geometridae and South Africa as a whole apparently has over 1000 species, most of them dressed in cryptic grays and sepias. The spider is indeed in the Thomisidae family, likely a flower crab spider in the genus Thomisus , of which there are at least 15 to choose from. The closest match I could find was T. citrinellus . Regards.
Karl
female Argiope protensa
Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 2:43 PM
Found this lovely lady in my vegetable patch. Thanks to Ron Atkinson (University of Southern Queensland) and Peter Chew (Brisbane Insects website) for ID of this member of the St Andrews Cross family. The orange stripes are generally not as pronounced as on this specimen but colour variation is apparently common amongst this species.
aussietrev
Capricornia region, Queensland
Argiope protensa
As always Trevor,
Thanks for your wonderful submission and identification. The abdomen on this Argiope protensa is significantly different from that of most Argiope species.
Argiope protensa
spider
Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 6:24 PM
I send this photo in during a very busy time for you, so I am not surprised
that it received no attention. Now that it is the middle of the winter, you
might have less e-mail, so I thought I would try again. I am still very
curious whether I have correctly identified the (very scary to me) spider.
I took the photo in early September, in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
The black dots are spaced 1in apart, so the critter is about 2 inches.
Brief research has led me to believe it’s a Giant House Spider,
as described on this website:
http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Glade
You will be glad to know that despite of frightening me nearly to death when
it suddenly appeared on a floor next to me, it has been left alone. We never
saw it again; I am guessing our small apartment is not a very spider-friendly
place, having no dark undisturbed corners to build a spider web.
What do you think?
Joanna
Giant House Spider
Hi Joanna,
We believe this might be a male Giant House Spider, Tegenaria duellica, based on some images posted to BugGuide. We are sorry you had to wait so long for a reply, but summer is a very busy time for us.
¶ Posted 31 December 2008 § ‡ ° 
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