Nature doesn’t recognize manmade boundaries. During a recent visit to Tennessee, I stopped in northern Alabama to photograph and collect some spiders very similar to some seen a few places in Texas. The most recent literature suggests spiders west of the Mississippi River are Pardosa mercurialis and those to the east are Pardosa lapidicina. The literature also postulates mercurialis may be a subspecies of lapidicina. Both are extremely variable and share several distinctive forms. Their DNA would help answer the question, and that is our intention. This particular form is one of the most spectacular among wolf spiders. It camouflages them well along rivers bordered with limestone rocks and sand. These are small spiders that could easily sit on a dime with room to spare.
This year on the blackland prairie was a lot like 2019 with lots of tall sunflowers. In October there was a profusion of yellow flowers and tiny asters.
On the way back from the October chapter meeting I stopped by Alligator Creek. It’s a location that always has something to offer, and there is an early winter species I haven’t been able to identify yet for lack of an adult female.
I picked up two spiders that looked interesting. Both cringed and flattened themselves against the ground as I approached but obligingly ran into my contain when poked from behind.
They turned out to be adult male Tigrosa georgicola, a species which is common there. Once they were in my container, they appeared much larger when their long legs became fully visible. During photography, I used my smaller ventral chamber and immediately realized I should have used the larger Both were very mellow and just barely fit with their legs stretched out.
The chamber is 2.75″ in diameter so I was able to get a good idea of their overall size which was about 4 times their body length. Females tend to have longer bodies and shorter legs.
I took them back for release 8 hours later. The release of one was particularly gratifying. I dumped him from the container into my hand and he just stood there. Usually they’re off in a flash as soon as they land. As I lowered my hand toward the ground he leisurely walked to the edge of my hand and then hopped to the ground.
In my opinion, a ventral view is necessary for a positive species identification within this genus.
Sometimes I get to see interesting behaviors while photographing wolf spiders. Most often this involves catching prey, because the light of my photography rig attracts all kinds of flying things out of the dark. In the blink of an eye, a spider leaps on its prey, usually a moth, and subdues it. Sometimes a spider misses, ends up on its back and then quickly flips itself right side up.
Once I saw a spider remain on its back after the moth escaped, hoping the moth would come back within reach. Behavior like this almost always happens too quickly to photograph.
Tuesday night I was photographing a large adult male Tigrosa which ended up on hold back holding onto his dinner with 4 of his legs. He didn’t immediately flip himself upright. I guess he was taking time to securely grab the moth by its neck with his jaws, so I got a picture! Then he flipped himself over without letting go of the moth and I got a second picture. It pays to have 8 legs.
If you happen to be in Dickens, TX, and head west on US 82 toward Crosbyton, you will soon find yourself crossing the White River, where there is a highway rest area. This is no ordinary rest stop, because it’s connected with historic Silver Falls Park. A series of steps lead down to the White River from the parking area. About two-thirds of the way down there is a font off to the right with a dribbling pipe sticking out from the back wall. The font has settled a bit, and a trickle of water flows across the bottom and down into a crack at the back.
I revisit the park periodically because someone else saw some large, unidentified wolf spiders there years ago. On May 28, I made another stop. I couldn’t use my headlamp until 9 PM because of the late sunset and then spent a futile hour looking for something interesting on both sides of the river. About a half dozen fireflies in one dark corner was the best I could find. Coming back up the steps while planning to leave, I looked to the left and saw a large wolf spider on the near rim of the font. I went closer and could see it was just what I wanted, and that it was a female with a lumpy abdomen. I tried to catch her, and she went down the inside wall to the back of the bottom. I stepped into the font and tried again. She went into the crack, and all I got for my trouble was some drips of water on my back and shoulders. It was obviously hopeless, so I went up the rest of the steps and to my car. Then I had to go back just in case. There she was on the far side of the font. I knew she’d be heading for the crack at the bottom again and was able to head her off into another crack between the side and the back. It took a while but eventually I was able to gently pry her out with a small stalk of something. Then I got her into a container and took her to be photographed.
She had lost two of her right legs and only had a few spiderlings left, possibly the results of a single earlier incident. Whatever it was, it all had happened before I started chasing her. She turned out to be a Gladicosa gulosa, the first I ever encountered in person.
Mother spider
Wolf spider behavior is pretty easy to understand. When thinking with their stomachs, they jump on anything that moves. Faster than can be seen, they decide if it’s food than can be subdued or something else that isn’t. If the latter, they immediately disengage and prepare to run long before even considering taking a bite. Subduction begins by pinning its prey against its sternum with as may legs as necessary. A spider may end up on its back so it can use all 8. Somehow they can flip themselves back upright while holding prey. Only then does it grasp the prey with chelicerae and inject venom. When not thinking with their stomachs, various evasive maneuvers are used. This time, the female was doing all she could to run off with her remaining spiderlings. After photos I released her on the far rim of the font. She immediately ran into the font and partway down the side as if she knew exactly where she was.
In late April I made my first extensive visit to South Texas. My primary goal was to explore the ranges of three closely related wolf spider species/subspecies, only one of which has been officially recognized. I was successful in that although populations along the Rio Grande appeared reduced by an extended dryness there. South Texas has a broad range of habitats from coastal grassland to dry thornscrub, and each of the three species/subspecies has found a different niche there. Going by iNaturalist observations, they are endemic to South Texas and Reynosa, Mexico.
This effort was suddenly interrupted when I started looking for them at Mustang Island State Park and found something else. Along the road near the park office I came across a bunch of “little brown spiders” except that they were more like medium size with body lengths of up to 12 mm. I immediately knew they were an unusual species for me and photographed 6, which thankfully included both male and female adults. The ones below are all males
After I got home and started uploading them to iNaturalist, I was unable to find an exact match. I thought Alopecosa was best choice for genus based on face and general appearance but none of the described species in the genus were a match. Granted that no images of some small species exist, wolf spiders of this large size are pretty well documented. I was very lucky to discover a whole population in this case. We are aware of a couple of larger spiders that also defy identification, but these are known from just a few observations and remain paused due to lack of evidence.
At 11:30 PM, it was time to drive back to the motel after spending hours in the dark with wolf spiders at Port Aransas and the State Park.
