Subject: Giant Striped Spider Feasting on Beetle!
Location: Goose Creek, SC
August 1, 2013 10:09 pm
Hello Bug-People! Tonight (Aug 1) I found a giant spider eating dinner on my laundry room door jamb. This thing is HUGE! Easily 3” in diameter. Looking through your archives I suspect it is a Fishing Spider. Am I right? Thanks for your help as always and I hope you enjoy the pictures; it is quite a handsome specimen.
Signature: Kerry Bateman
Dear Kerry,
We surely hope you did not take our tardy response time as an indication of any lack of enthusiasm on our part. We had been away from the office beginning July 30 and we did not respond to any identification requests for 2 1/2 weeks. “Handsome” is an understatement. This is a gorgeous Fishing Spider, most likely a White Banded Fishing Spider, Dolomedes albineus, based on this image posted to BugGuide.
One of the best ways to identify spiders to the family level is by the eye arrangement. If we zoom in, they eyes on this beauty clearly match the Dolomedes eye arrangement pictured on BugGuide.