About 1.5 to 2 inches across. Found in Santa Cruz, CA
Edit: Thanks all for your responses!
Some species of American false wolf spider
this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2024
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What is this thing?
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Yeah, thought this too. Identified a similair looking spider with an app once.
Big nope vibes.
A harmless bro.
The bite like wolfies? Because I had one hit me like when bee sting when I scared her up.
Yeah, probably. A bee sting is a pretty good comparison for spider bites in general, though with a very low chance of alergic reaction compared to bees or wasps. And that's really where the danger is.
Otherwise it will just hurt for a bit and then go away.
Thanks, that was my assumption as well from some minor googling but wanted to get another pair (or 3) of eyes on it
I just got a reply back from a buddy that is an actual publish arachnologist and he confirms it's Zoropsidae (the false wolf spiders, and the family including the widley suggested Titiotus).
Thanks, I also thought it was a wolf or false wolf as well from some minor googling. I appreciate you reaching out to your friend for the expert opinion!
Looks like a wolf or false wolf spider. Good spiderbro.
A spider that's terrible at hiding
Thanks for sharing this! I quite enjoyed it.
The choice to
show spoiler
muffle the microphone when the spider covered its head with sand
was a brilliant touch.
P.S. I wish Lemmy supported >!inline spoilers!<. The current spoiler markdown is pretty clunky.
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.
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)
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?
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.
My best guess so far would be Titiotus sp., one of the false wolf spiders.
Thank you! I thought probably wolf at first and only learned about the existence of false-wolf when googling.
Don't have an answer, but hope things are going well. I miss living there.