Dolomedes tenebrosus
(Dark Fishing Spider)

Featured spider picture The spider species Dolomedes tenebrosus, commonly known as Dark Fishing Spider, belongs to the genus Dolomedes, in the family Dolomedidae. Dolomedes tenebrosus spiders have been sighted 272 times by contributing members. Based on collected data, the geographic range for Dolomedes tenebrosus includes 3 countries and 32 states in the United States. Dolomedes tenebrosus is most often sighted outdoors, and during the month of May.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Suborder: Araneomorphae
Family: Dolomedidae
Genus: Dolomedes
Species: Dolomedes tenebrosus

Other Common Names

Dark Fishing Spider, Nursery Web Spider, Raft Spider, Dock Spider

Author

Nicholas Marcellus Hentz, 1844

Primary Colors

Sightings Overview

There have been 272 confirmed sightings of Dolomedes tenebrosus (Dark Fishing Spider), with the most recent sighting submitted on November 1, 2024 by Spider ID member old-sawbonez. The detailed statistics below may not utilize the complete dataset of 272 sightings because of certain Dolomedes tenebrosus sightings reporting incomplete data.

Web: 6% of the time, Dolomedes tenebrosus spiders are sighted in a spider web (Sample size: 272)
Sex: 2 female and 9 male.
Environment: Dolomedes tenebrosus has been sighted 155 times outdoors, and 144 times indoors.
Outdoors: Man-made structure (90). Low foliage (3). High foliage (9). Ground layer (17). Under rock or debris (17). Freshwater river, lake, stream (5). Open field, pasture, grassland (1). Forest (13).

Location and Range

Dolomedes tenebrosus (Dark Fishing Spider) has been sighted in the following countries: Canada, Pakistan, United States.

Dolomedes tenebrosus has also been sighted in the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin.

Seasonality

Dolomedes tenebrosus has been primarily sighted during the month of May.

January: 3
February: 3
March: 15
April: 53
May: 131
June: 30
July: 5
August: 6
September: 4
October: 12
November: 3
December: 7

Additional Remarks

Despite the moniker of “fishing spider,” this particular species is frequently found far away from water. It is the least aquatic of the genus.
Frequently mistaken for a “wolf spider” (members of family Lycosidae), but the eye arrangements are vastly different.
Courtship lasts about 1.5 hours and culminates with the act of copulation, which only takes about 4.5 minutes (Sierwald & Coddington 1988).
Egg sac is a grayish sphere, approximately 15mm in diameter, held in the jaws of the female as she wanders. Can contain over 1,000 eggs; Kaston (1948) recorded one that had 1,393 eggs.
Mother hangs the egg sac in a “nursery web” when the babies are ready to emerge, and watches over them until they disperse after their first molt.