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Comments & ID Thoughts
What kind of spider is this!? I was cleaning and swept it up in the dust pile. Poisonous? When I poked it (with a stick) it turned to face me in a defensive position ...Like a crab!
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Dec 21, 2020
- Photographed: Dec 21, 2020
- Spider: Unidentified
- Location: Warwick, Rhode Island, United States
- Spotted Indoors: Basement or Cellar
- Found in web?: No
- Attributes:
It’s a Woodlouse Hunting Spider, Dysdera crocata. They have specialized fangs for hunting Woodlice/ PillBugs/Roly Polies – the flat oval bugs on rotting wood that curl into a sphere as their defensive position. The fangs on this spider are long and curl toward each other with overlapping tips. They can spear and flip prey with one fang like a longhorn steer. Used together the fangs encircle the Pillbug and pierce all the way through the spherical insect’s weak spots where the soft sides aren’t shielded. The fangs are visible in your photo. The worst they can do to a human… Read more »