Comments & ID Thoughts
This Lycosidae is the species Camptocosa parallela
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Aug 23, 2021
- Photographed: Jul 6, 2021
- Spider: Unidentified
- Location: Mayer, Arizona, United States
- Spotted Outdoors: Ground layer (leaf litter, dirt, grass, etc)
- Found in web?: No
- Attributes:
Impressive image!
Thank you. Not seeing very many Camptocosa parallela this year sadly. They are very small Lycosidae and the males have brush legs like Schizocosa. They are absolutely beautiful!!
So are Lycosidae your favorate/preferred area of study? You seem like an academician.
Thank you for the compliment. No I don’t have a degree, it’s a long story but I have had 2 amazing mentors. I’ve been studying and documenting all families that are native to my 2 acres just outside of the Prescott forest for a bit over 5 years. Just like you I was terrified of spider’s and after moving here I was seeing them everywhere so I decided knowledge is power. I never ever thought it would grow into this amazing passion and I never knew all the aspects of my life that it would be changing but it’s all… Read more »
Your passion is obvious! Degree or not, you are obviously engrossed in the scientific process and probably know more about spiders than 99% of people in your life lol. It’s been interesting to see my phobia transform into study and fascination! I was SO frightened of even the smallest spider. I thought they -wanted- to do me harm. Now I know more about spiders than 99% of the people in my life! I don’t think I would want to own one as a pet, but if I find one in nature it is difficult to not hesitate and take photos… Read more »
Oh I’m so sorry to hear about your loss of trees and spiders living spaces. There’s been significant shifting under the foundation of the main house on property and it has really devastated the Ariadna bicolor. I watched them try to rebuild above where a pipe that is conduit for the wiring to the guest houses and outbuildings. They started to go into old screw holes that were open. Then we had an amazing monsoon season this last couple months. So where the Ariadna bicolor had moved due to this pipe not being flush against the wall due to the… Read more »
Only vaguely. This site is about as social media savvy as I get. I really should expand my horizons.
LOL, this site is all the social media I need. inaturalist is citizen science like BugGuide is and neither is social. I’ve been letting the science technicalities slip a bit on this site in favor of getting our message across. Our site’s original intent is exactly what Anyphaena and yourself said, “Spiders don’t want to kill you and probably can’t. Stop being afraid and learn about how interesting they are.”
It’s awesome to me to see other people write in long form. I’m trying to cut back. This site logs you out and you lose what you write if you spend too long writing, trust me. 😉
Like FormerArachnophobe his sharing of experiences and how he overcame his fears if we all just start sharing our experiences there are ppl out there that are looking for that information as I type this. Identification is important but (although I thoroughly enjoy the research aspect and taxonomy very much!!) Many people would benefit from hearing from others who were where they are. If you can’t even leave your house because there’s a Huntsman chillin on your awning then that’s debilitating. That fear is terrifying and so real but knowing now that it’s so completely unnecessary and it’s been put… Read more »
Cool! Our site founder, Mandy, dropped out of college, but had the passion and intelligence to become a respected researcher. A spider was named for her in-memorium . Drive is more important than a degree. Our Moderator is impressively knowledgeable about spiders. She’s self-taught.
Mandy Howe is a huge inspiration to me!! Her passion for spiders and the information she contributed has helped me so much. I didn’t know that about a spider being named for her but that warms my heart and is the perfect representation for the contribution she made!! I love the purpose of this site being to help people to not fear spiders by providing information and dispelling myths. I’ve many times wanted to start a site with that being the main purpose. I once talked to a man who was afraid of spider’s but mainly afraid of Loxosceles Species.… Read more »
Also just wanted to add that inaturalist did help me in the beginning with a starting place to help me learn and there are some negative things about it too I’ve many times been criticized but that just pushed me to learn more and to be able to have facts and information ready and it helped me to start seasonal charts and to start a catalog of the spider’s I’ve documented here. I just believe it is a good starting point because when you begin studying something out of fear it can be overwhelming on how to go about it.… Read more »
I have never even had a Facebook account, largely for fear of stepping on social landmines, but also because I have so many physical world hobbies that engaging in virtual world hobbies seems counterproductive. I have now been (mostly) unafraid of spiders for less than three years, after being absolutely terrified of them my whole life. I had the double-whammy of being exposed to J.R.R. Tolkien as a toddler and living in a woodsy enough area called Forest Park. I would constantly stumble right through spider webs. There was always yard work and deadfall on our acreage. I was never… Read more »
I didn’t get the notification for this and my reply is so late but I still need to reply because what you just described is something I can very much understand and the way you said it is quite beautiful. I’m so glad for you and I wish for so many others to be able to see spiders from new eyes and have their lives literally changed because just like you it’s changed my life as well. I didn’t come back on here for a while because 1 I hadn’t received any notification and 2 I was embarrassed because I… Read more »