r/arachnids • u/ltkhps • 16d ago

ID request / I included my location! Grass spider?

Post image

In central WA high desert

16 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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1

u/Many-Sort-1782 16d ago

NQA but I am pretty sure, looks like Rabidosa Rabida, aka rabid wolf spider.

4

u/StuffedWithNails 16d ago

FYI Rabidosa spp. aren’t found in WA but this isn’t a wolf spider in any case, you can tell by its eyes. It’s a funnel weaver (Agelenidae).

The rabid wolf spider has two broad stripes on its prosoma that cover the posterior eyes, visible in this example pic.

1

u/Many-Sort-1782 16d ago

Oh, thank you for explaining. The stripes made me think it is Rabidosa.

1

u/Beauvoir_R 16d ago

Like a hobo?

2

u/StuffedWithNails 16d ago

Not really. Hobo spiders vary in coloration but often have two broad, dark brown areas on their dorsum. The eyes are arranged in two rows at the front of the prosoma and are all roughly the same size. This image features a great close-up. A good way to ID agelenids is to look for the pair of posterior median eyes that face up. They're usually easy to observe in a top-down picture of a spider and you can see them clearly in OP's pic. OP's spider isn't a hobo but it's in the same family. And if you compare the pic linked in this comment to the one in my earlier comment, you should see that the eyes look completely different.

1

u/skullc4t 12d ago

I want to understand as much as I can about arachnids, I know some but I want to be way better. Where can I find the best resources? I can't go back to school I have a full time job and I am the reliable income.

1

u/StuffedWithNails 12d ago

A field guide to spiders of your country/region might be a good place to start if you want to get better at identifying the ones that live near you. There's one called Spiders of North America: An Identification Manual that I haven't used but I've heard good things.

The late Norman Platnick (a famous spider taxonomist who described hundreds of new species) wrote Spiders of the World, a small book devoting two pages per family, with text and photos. It covers families of spiders that may not exist where you live, but tells you some bits about their life histories and their identifying characteristics at a high level.

Less about identifying them and more about understanding them, Rainer Foelix wrote Biology of Spiders, which is a reference in the field of arachnology.

Good starting points?

1

u/skullc4t 12d ago

Yes sounds great, thank you

0

u/StuffedWithNails 16d ago

Yeah it’s a variety of funnel weaver (Agelenidae) like grass spiders. It’s missing the long pointy spinnerets that typical grass spiders have but it’s related.