Large Tegenaria, not sure what type
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
October 30, 2010 7:51 pm
Saw this spider outside my house Oct26,2010 late fall in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Very large spider for these parts, body 1.5cm long, tip to tip from legs was around 8cm.
I think its a Tegenaria but not sure if its type is a atrica or duellica
Signature: junponline
Dear junponline,
We agree that this is a Funnel Web Spider in the genus Tegenaria, but any attempts at our making a species identification are purely speculation. Our guess is the Giant House Spider,Tegenaria gigantea (synonym for Tegenaria duellica), though there are a few snags in that line of possibility. This is a European species that was introduced to the Pacific Northwest along with several other European species, including its relative the Hobo Spider, Tegenaria agrestis. BugGuide does not list Nova Scotia as a sighting location, and all sightings are confined to the west coast. The physical description of the Giant House Spider on bugGuide is “No banding on the legs, but proportionally longer legs than its cousins T. agrestis or T. domestica” and that fits your spider. BugGuide also indicates: “The greater European house spider (T. gigantea) is not dangerous to people. Some people may be intimidated by their size as male legspans can reach 4 inches (100 mm). However, Rod Crawford has never known one to bite a human (though they certainly could if they tried); they are so docile he uses them as hands-on demonstrators for school children. You may want to post your photo to BugGuide to see what their large group of contributors has to say, because this may prove to be the first eastern report for the Giant House Spider.
”
Thanks for the id, sure is hard to tell the difference between funnel,wolf and fishing spiders.