Hogna Fantasy

by Ann Collins

Long ago and not so far away lived a group who called themselves the “Hogna.” Sounds like a Native American tribe, doesn’t it? But, no, we who are better informed know them as a strain of arachnids, joint-legged arthropods. That’s “wolf spiders” for those of you who need a head’s up.

Anyway, it seems the leaders of the group were interested in genealogy and had heard rumors of some cousins that had disappeared from the family tree. These were the antelucana part of the tribe, and they wanted to reconnect with the cousins. They didn’t even know what to call them; they just knew they were Hognas.

Fortunately, one day a young man by the name of Eric was discovered in their home territory. Now, Eric was a bit of a mystery to the Hogna, and the Hogna were an equal mystery to Eric. The Hogna were terrified of Eric in the beginning, because he was always running them down and swooping them up in a Tupperware container. Hogna aren’t jumping spiders, and the sides of the plastic containers were too slick to climb out of, so they were trapped. Nobody likes that feeling, do they? It wasn’t too long before they realized that sooner or later Eric would dump them out of the Tupperware, and they could once again go about the business of their daily lives.

Somehow or other those who were abducted by the Tupperware King were able to communicate their interest in their genealogy search. Eric couldn’t promise much since he wasn’t proficient in that kind of search. After all, he was a cross between an engineer and an ice skater! But he said he would look into it for them. Out came the Tupperware and even more of the Hognas got to experience the thrill of the hunt.

One fantastic day, Eric noticed some differences to the antelucana in a wolf spider he had caught. Maybe he was better at this genealogy thing than he had initially thought. He kept finding more of these Hognas with strange markings.

When he needed to see both sides of a spider (wolf spiders being on the larger side) it became a bit of a challenge to Eric as well as to the Hogna. Eric got the engineering part of his brain working on the problem and designed and built a contraption that would allow photographs to be taken without the discomfort of having the Hogna lie motionless on their backs while he took pictures and studied the differences between the cousins. (Some of us think he should apply for a patend for this device! What do you think?)

Well, time moved on, as it has a way of doing, and Eric became convinced that he had truly found the lost Hogna cousins. (He put a talk, with pictures, together and presented it to friends and folks who became staunch supporters of his research. He even presented his research at the Texas Master Naturalist State Conference.) He was becoming something of a celebrity in the world of spiders.

Russell Pfau, who is a professor at a college up in Stephenville, began paying attention to Eric’s research. Russell was able to confirm that our very own Eric had indeed discovered a new species never before documented (again, we are so proud!). Eric even found out what the branch of Hogna wanted to be called. Hogna incognita is the name/title they will be known as from now on. Somewhere in this discovery Eric Neubauer will be forever linked.

We are all so very proud of Eric for his dedication, persistence, and patience in his quest to prove his research was valid.

Way to go, my friend!