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Comments & ID Thoughts
Possibly a wolf spider. She appears to be carrying an egg sac an was quite agitated when unearthed.
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Apr 27, 2022
- Photographed: Apr 25, 2022
- Spider: Unidentified
- Location: Mineral - Louisa County, Virginia, United States
- Spotted Outdoors: Ground layer (leaf litter, dirt, grass, etc)
- Found in web?: No
- Attributes:
Yes she’s a Wolf Spider, I’m not sure which species. There are volunteers here who are better at identifying them than I am. She is carrying her egg sac at her posterior using her spinnerets. They do become defensive when they are guarding an egg sac or hatchlings.
She did get my finger. Tiniest bit of blood like a scratch almost. I saw her movement, and stopped pulling the leaves. She ran and stood frozen for a long while. I eventually was able to scoop her up in a plastic container and my son relocated her to the middle of our woods. I didn’t snap another photo because she was freaking out.
That’s interesting. Wolf Spiders are really dedicated mothers. She’ll carry the hatchlings around on her body after carrying the egg sac around. She needs to protect them from attacks by parasitic wasps that target big spider species and their egg sacs. Sometimes I find big spiders eating the parasitic wasps and I’m so happy for them!
We have so many wasps around here! My husband has a bee allergy too! We have a lot of ground yellow jackets. I hope the spider will be okay with the relocation. She will have turtles and lizards in the midst of the woods to contend with.
Your area sounds like fun for someone like me. Virginia seems like it has a huge wildlife population.
I have loads of wasps and bees, I keep finding ones I haven’t identified before. The Yellow Jackets are obnoxious animals. I have a surgical scar diagonal between my eyes because I developed a big tumor from a genetic autoimmune condition that over-reacted to the stinger embedded in my face.
Removing any animal feces promptly from the grass helps because they are attracted to poop. Such classy critters!
My goodness. I hope you have an epipen now! You probably would react to spider venom badly as well. I have lupus so am familiar with autoimmune disorder. Most definitely is buggy and full of wildlife here in Louisa….we use to live in Fairfax County, just outside of DC. Moved further out after 9/11. Now live between Richmond & DC.
Bummer about the Lupus, I’m probably going to get diagnosed with that eventually. My husband teases me about trying to “collect all of the autoimmune diseases.” He has a bunch too. Psoriasis is the 2022 addition, my faces flakes. The tumor one is actually common, it took 2 years between the embedded stinger and plastic surgery. With this mutation any embedded object, like a thorn or splinter can be cause for a tumor to form around it. The good news is that I got so many compliments on my surgical scar that a friend got so jealous that she got… Read more »
Goodness!
Tigrosa georgicola ( Wolf spider )
Thanks for helping us, “Room.”
You can call me Max, As that is my real name 🙂
And No problem!
Thanks!