What is this thing?

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[Solved] What kind of spider is this? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/whatisthisthing

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About 1.5 to 2 inches across. Found in Santa Cruz, CA

Edit: Thanks all for your responses!

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Arthropods aren't my forte, and its hard to judge without a sense of scale and/or a look at the eye layout. So someone more knowledgeable should correct me. That said, it I looks to me like a Titiotus. Various species of which call California home.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Thanks, I didn't realize how varied eye layouts were in spiders otherwise I would have tried for a better pic from another angle. Hoped the rough size estimate would be sufficent but I understand how a picture with a banana (or similar) for scale would be more helpful. Appreciate the response and it seems the crowd has spoken -- false wolf spider! (or perhaps regular wolf spider but either way is good enough for me)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

or perhaps regular wolf spider

Nope, easily exluded by what you can see in the pictures, by the eyes. The entire cephalothorax region is wrong for a wolf spider. I was first stuck on Gnaphosidae.

And your picture was brilliant. You won't believe the shitty pictures some people expect you to give an ID from. And you gave a proper size (though we prefere body lenght over leg span and centimetres) and a location.

This post was perfect. Even got the "oh a brown spider, must be a brown recluse" comment ...

Join [email protected] maybe?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

Your size description was good, I'm just terrible at imagining sizes well. But I get why getting it to stand next to a coin or something for scale was not an option. I love spiders, but they don't take direction.