HUGE Red Creepy Sow Bug Killer(?) in Oklahoma
April 20, 2010
Hi,
I found this nasty looking spider about a week ago in central Oklahoma. I think it’s a sow bug killer, but the coloring looks more red than the other pictures I’ve seen. He was about an inch and a half long. His eyes were grouped tightly together and his legs and abdomen were covered in black bristles. His pedipalps were really long, almost as long as his front legs, and I think he had “claws” on the ends (I couldn’t really tell because he kept them tucked up by his fangs). When I found him, he was hiding in a burrow under a log. This guy was really calm and cooperative as I took his picture. Thanks any help with the I.D.
Josh Kouri
Hi Josh,
This is definitely not a Sow Bug Killer, Dysdera crocata, which you can compare to this nice photograph of a similar angle on BugGuide. Your spider looks to us like a Folding Door Spider in the genus Antrodiaetus which is also pictured on BugGuide. Folding Door Spiders are a group of Trapdoor Spiders that live in tubes which they close by drawing in the rim according to BugGuide.
Thanks for the I.D. I never would have guessed he was a trap door spider. I didn’t even know we had them in Oklahoma!
Josh
Correction thanks to Eric Eaton
May 7, 2010
Daniel:
I agree the spider posted on April 21 is a type of trapdoor spider, just not in the family Antrodiaetidae. More likely in the family Cyrtaucheniidae. Positive, in fact.
Eric