Month: October 2025

New and Unusual Wolf Spider Observations

Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall2 Comments

by Eric Neubauer

Here are two spiders I’ve recently observed in my quest to identify all Texas wolf spiders

Do wolf spiders intentionally lie on their backs?

Yes! Here a juvenile Hogna baltimorina does just that while subduing a moth it captured a
second earlier and just seconds after I finished photographing it. It has all legs free to hang on to the moth. After the struggle ended, the spider quickly flipped over, prey and all.

The spider was released later and took its dinner with it.

A few years back I saw a wolf spider pounce on a grasshopper about the same size. The grasshopper jumped a couple of feet into the air, taking the spider with it. The grasshopper immediately made a much smaller second jump with the spider still hanging on. Then it was all over.

Moral of the story: If you meet a really big wolf spider, don’t try wrestling with it. You won’t win.

New Hogna Species Spotted

For years I’ve been trying to sort out the various Pardosa species in Texas. There are over a dozen of them and many are very difficult to tell apart by either appearance or genitalia. One common species in Texas appears to be a more southern species (Mexico and Central America), and the species it’s supposed to be is actually many miles east Texas. Others have sketchy ranges or none at all. It would be easy for an unnamed species to be hiding in Texas but I’ve been avoiding this possibility, which could seriously complicate an already messy situation.

Well apparently here’s one that is fortunately different enough from others to not be confused with them. It also has the most shocking appearance of any. There are at least 5 details besides pattern boldness that set it apart from others. Ostensibly it’s in the lapidicina species group which is known for its evenly banded legs, at least as juveniles and females. They also love rocks of all sizes and often sun on them. Steep clay slopes will do in a pinch.

 I’ll be working with a professor at UT on this. I was visiting his ranch surveying wolf spiders and these just popped up out of nowhere. I’ve been working on that genus for years with only middling success but instantly knew this was something that was different than anything I’d seen in Texas in person or on iNat. Funding for domestic taxnomic research is scarce, so being able to interest professors in that area is important. 

A First for Me

Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall1 Comment

by Carolyn Henderson

I went home for lunch on Monday and was nicely surprised by a first sighting for me. A Northern Flicker was drinking out of my birdbath. I did not know what it was, so I worked on some photos to put on iNaturalist. I had to take them from inside my house through a window, so they aren’t perfect, but they’re clear. 

It’s considered a woodpecker, but it has dappled brown feathers with a red spot on neck and black markings. An it’s unique from other woodpeckers because it hunts its prey on the ground. Flickers prefer ants! This explains why it’s in my backyard. Fifty percent of its diet is ants. It also lets the ants crawl on it to rid it of parasites. I have an ant problem. Plenty for it to eat. Another difference from most woodpeckers is that it migrates. It can’t find ants in frozen ground.

I looked to see if anyone else in Milam County had reported one, and I saw the only other one was Michelle Lopez in 2024. She first heard it with her Merlin then she got some photos. 

I really enjoy finding new sightings. When I tried to get to a better window to take photos it flew away. I hope it comes back and eats lots of ants. 

Nighttime Photobombers

Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

by Eric Neubauer

Since I do photography in the dark with artificial lighting, I’m often get photobombing visitors. On the last trip, my experience at Monahans Sandhills State Park was especially hideous with a multitude of some kind of wasp which even stung me three times, once when I sat on one. By the time I got to Oasis State Park I had learned to keep my headlamp set to red lightand only turn on the lighting for photography as briefly as possible.

Some of the photobombing insects become meals for my subject spiders, which is a good thing. I like sending them away with something to show for it. I also got a couple of nice adult antlion observations this trip.

Brachynemurus hubbardii

Then there was this moth from Oasis State Park just across the border near Portales, NM. I put a species ID on it, then someone put a different ID on it, and then we agreed both were wrong. After a search of observations around the entire country, I finally found a pretty good match. Lacinipolia vicina is primarily found in the Northeast although there are several observations scattered around the country. The closest two are in California.

So, you never know what might drop in. The 55 observations on iNaturalist peak in September so that checks out OK.

Encounter with a Black Witch

Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall1 Comment

by Eric Neubauer

I recently got back from the TX/NM border region including Monahans Sandhills State Park. Not great timing for wolf spiders because only a few species were in or nearing their breeding season, but I was still able to add two species to my life list. There were other compensations:

Ascalapha odorata (Black Witch) is a huge moth. I had seen a couple of very worn ones in a dark alcove at Devils River last fall where they couldn’t be readily photographed. As I made my way down into a sand dune blowout, I flushed one that flew around for a while before settling down about 5′ away. Unbelievably it let me approach quite close. The photos were amazing and were a credit to the Olympus camera. Light levels were very low and the setting sun had already left most of the
blowout in shadow.

Not far away was a Euploca convolvulacea (Phlox heliotrope) which had only the bare essentials of a mature plant. Many plants were covered with hundreds of bloom.

I’ve known about the Black Witch for decades but never expected to see one, so never looked up the details. The range map on iNat is amazing and includes all of North and South America except the coldest extremes. It has even turned up on Wake Island in the eastern Pacific. It is quite a flier and apparently has some sort of northward migration in the fall.

Mine was in perfect condition, so it must have matured nearby rather than migrating there. There had been 8 previous observations scattered around Ward County, all in good condition suggesting there is a healthy local breeding population there.