Larger black and brown spider maybe tarantula
Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 7:50 PM
We live in Dayton Nevada 15 miles from Carson City Nevada. My husband found this spider about 2 weeks ago underneath a board outside. In the last 2 weeks he/she has doubled in size and loves crickets. When we first found him/her was half the size it is now ( body is about 1 inch long and with the legs about an inch and 1/2 long. When we first found him/her it was all black now the rear end of the spider is a silky brown very short hair on the rear end and two back legs, upper part of the body is slick looking as well as the front two sets of legs. It appears that there is a set of eyes in the middle of the head, almost in a prymaid looking area. The spider has very larger feeder arms on the front as well.
The spider really doesn’t make webs, it seems that it only webs so that it can’t eat whatever it has bitten. So is this a baby tarantula? Thanks for your help.
Jennifer DeForest
Dayton Nevada
probably Crevice Weaver Spider
Hi Jennifer,
All of your photos are quite blurry, but we believe this may be a young Tarantula in the genus Aphonopelma since the markings match some images posted to BugGuide. We will contact Eric Eaton to see if he is more certain. Is this spider now being kept in captivity? Are you, by chance, related to our good friend John who is a landscape architect in Laguna?
Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:20:17 -0800 (PST)
Daniel:
You aren’t kidding about “blurry.” LOL! Impossible to be certain, but I think that the spider is a “crevice weaver” in the family Filistatidae. They should stop feeding the thing for awhile, too. Spiders are opportunistic predators, and will overeat if fed too regularly (in the wild they don’t know when the next meal is coming).
There are some great images of filistatids over at Bugguide that they can compare to. I’m pretty certain this is not a tarantula.
Eric
UPdate:
Here is an after thought, I was researching on bug guide and I believe now that this is either a trapdoor spider or a Crevice Weavers (Filistatidae) »Kukulcania I can not tell which. After looking through the pictures and looking at my spider, I see that he has bands on his legs where they attach to the body. I would better describe the hair as velvet looking. I just can not decided which spider he is and if it is a he or a she. I have also noticed he has atleast 1 dimple on his butt, and no spinnerets. I am unsure if either of these spiders are supposed to be in my area.
Thanks for all your help.
Jennifer DeForest
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