by Eric Neubauer
The wolf spider world never shuts down in Texas if you know where to look. About a dozen species from a number of genera mature over winter when they can hide among fallen leaves. They can be quite active at night during rare warm spells. They all look generally similar and are often hard to tell apart unless you know exactly what details to look for.
Here we have the obscure S. perplexa, which I’ve written about before. Turn it over and the white on black abdomen pattern makes identification easy. This is a juvenile male just one molt away from adulthood.
The other is Varacosa avara. I had found some a couple of weeks earlier and speculated they were this species mostly because of the strongly pinched carapace medial band at the posterior lateral eyes. This time it was another adult male, and I was able to confirm it from the spine lengths on the underside of tibia I thanks to a better image. The pinched medial band is a lot easier to see than the translucent spines, but the medial band pinching isn’t mentioned in the literature. Body lengths of both spiders are a little over 8 mm (a third of an inch).
Also seen was a much larger Tigrosa georgicola. The presumed female has been in about the same place for over a month. Previously she had retreated into her burrow as I approached but this time she held her ground. I didn’t attempt to capture her for photos since I already have a lot of photos of that species.
Nature Along the El Camino Real 