#schizocosa

[onenicebugperday]

@bxlldog submitted: woke up to someone crawling on my face while camping in rhode island

Oh a face visitor!!! They should really ask first before doing that. Glad no one was accidentally slapped to death. This sweet friend is a wolf spider in the genus Schizocosa :)

[sitta-pusilla]

The sweetest little face

[corymorpha]

Not the kind of cooki you want with a glass of milk...

...though some might call it the McCooki Monster. Today’s picture is one of the wolf spiders (Family: Lycosidae) Schizocosa mccooki.  This spider is common along the west coast of the US from Washington to Southern California and across the US to the east coast.  This lovely girl was wandering around on the floor of my living room in San Diego.  These spiders do not dig burrows (as some other wolf spiders do) and are often found wandering around on the ground looking for food and/or mates. They are completely harmless to people, and while they can bite it's really unlikely they would bite you.

Below isn’t my work: its a YouTube video of courtship and mating in Schzocosa by Rachel Gilbert.  Its kind of cool to watch the male tapping to send vibration signals and waving his legs to attract the the female.

References

Adams, R.J. and Manolis, T.D. (2014). Field Guide to the Spiders of California and the Pacific Coast States (California Natural History Guides). University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Kaston, B.J. (YEAR). How to Know the Spiders (Pictured Key Nature). Third Edition. Wm. C. Brown Company, Dubuque, Iowa.

[spiderask]

Large spider found in SoCal. Looks female and pregnant (gravid?) to me, and I'd've called it a wolf spider, but it was a good inch and a half in legspan - much bigger than the kinds of spiders we usually get inside. (More photos to come)

Hello! What a fantastic photo!

You're right- she's female and most likely pregnant. She is a wolf spider, as you said. And she looks like she's from the genus Schizocosa- best match there is S. mccooki.

Thanks again for such a lovely photo!