Mother of forty-four

  wolf spider

The wolf spider is a family of carnivorous spiders that have adapted to most of the world's major ecosystems. Among the many distinctive and interesting characteristics, most wolf spiders lack the ability to rotate complex webs to hunt prey. Instead, they hunt their prey mercilessly like the famous animal they named after. Females also carry their young on their backs. Despite their rather frightening appearance and behavior, wolf spiders are a useful part of the food chain by helping to keep many other insect species under control.

Fascinating facts about the wolf spider

Wolf spiders are sometimes known as ground spiders or hunting spiders due to their fun way of capturing prey.

The large eyes of the wolf spider provide excellent vision, especially at night. It has one of the best visions of all kinds of spiders. However, wolf spiders can not move their eyes and rely on their wide vision for vision.

Wolf spiders have three small claws at the end of their legs, which helps them hunt.

The Carolina wolf spider is the official Spider of the state of South Carolina. It is also the only American country that has an official Spider.

Scientific name of the wolf spider

The scientific name of the wolf spider is Lycosidae, which comes from the ancient Greek word for Wolf. This really huge family consists of about 124 known genera and more than 2800 species (depending on how they are classified). Since there are so many different species, it is difficult to give a complete overview of the varieties, but nevertheless, there are many similarities between them. This family belongs to the rank of Araneae, which includes all known spiders.

Appearance and behavior of the wolf spider

The wolf spider can sometimes be recognized by its large eyes, long legs, huge body, huge appendages. It has black, brown or gray colors sometimes mixed with tan or light orange markings. This helps them to integrate with their surroundings and surprise their prey. The wolf spider has eight eyes located around its head in three characteristic rows: two at the top, two at the front, and another four eyes above the mouth. These four smaller eyes provide secondary vision and contain a type of reflective tissue that can produce a strong glow in the light. The body size of a wolf spider can vary greatly between 0.24 and 1.2 inches – or about the size of a coin – and usually weighs less than an ounce. Its eight legs are much longer than the body and make the spider look bigger than it actually is. Females tend to be larger than males on average. Wolf spiders are nocturnal animals that hunt exclusively at night. Spend most of their time on the ground, but sometimes climb trees or plants to catch prey.

Vision and predation

The wolf spider relies on its excellent visibility and sensitivity to nearby vibrations to hunt down prey and avoid predators. They also make sounds and emit communication chemicals. Wolf spiders may be either nomadic or territorial. Some species drill holes under rocks, tree trunks or other objects for safety and security and then hide the hole with debris or garbage. They tend to have a specific hunting ground to which they will return every night. Other wolf spiders have no specific home. They wander around a wide swath of land in search of food and may seek human habitation when the weather becomes cold. Despite its association with web-building spiders, the wolf spider does not build large webs, but still produces silk for egg bags and for other purposes. Thus, their silk has a slightly different composition and strength compared to web-building spiders. Because they lack this ability, their hunting behavior is more reminiscent of a large carnivorous animal like a wolf than many other species of spiders. Wolf spider (Lycosidae) wolf spider with children

Habitat of the wolf spider

The wolf spider is a truly prolific family that can live almost anywhere in the world besides the extreme polar region and Antarctica. Its habitat extends through almost the entire world, including much of the Sahara Desert and Siberia. The most common habitats are grasslands, Meadows, shrubs, forests, wetlands, gardens and human homes. They can also live in places inhospitable, such as deserts, mountains and even volcanoes. While some species require very specific environmental conditions, the vast majority have adapted to a variety of habitats. More than 200 species of wolf spider currently live in the United States.

One of the most common species is the rabid wolf spider. They are found throughout Texas, Oklahoma and sometimes even Maine and Florida. Despite the name, the rabid wolf spider is not particularly dangerous.

Spider-Wolf diet

The diet of the Spider Wolf almost exclusively of insects and other spiders. Less commonly they resort to small reptiles and amphibians. Some favorite foods are ants, grasshoppers, and beetles, but diet can vary considerably by region and location. This varied diet enables them to live almost anywhere small invertebrates are found. Wolf spider is a lightning fast predator. Many species wait in hiding to surprise their prey and pounce on them from a distance. They are also fast enough to hunt down retreating prey.

Once the prey is caught, the spider then begins to roll the victim into a ball or inject poison directly into its body as a means of liquefying its organs. Then the Spider absorbs liquid nutrients from the body. Wolf spiders have some strategies for dealing with scarce food supplies, especially in harsh climates where they may experience frequent deprivation. They have the ability to slow down the metabolism or they can participate in some of cannibalism.

Wolf spider: predators and threats

Although her behavior creepy, small size spider Wolf makes a gourmet meal for large animals such as birds, lizards, and rodents. When threatened by a predator, a wolf spider can resort to several defenses. He has a remarkable ability to detach a leg and make a daring escape (the spider later regenerates its leg, but usually at a short-term cost). A poisonous sting is also a painful deterrent to many predators. If all else fails, the spider will try to use its impressive speed and agility to run and hide.

Unlike many other animals, humansare only minimal threat to the wolf spider family as a whole. They have adapted well to human habitats and can even coexist with people when left alone. However, because of the fear of spiders, people often try to kill them.

Wolf spider: reproduction, children, age

At the beginning of the mating season, male spiders will try to flirt with females by waving their feet (their mouth extensions) in the air or hitting them together. Wolf spiders are selective in choosing their mate and searching for specific characteristics that may be unique to each species. It is also believed that the male may be able to feel sexual availability and even the previous sexual behavior of the female from the chemical composition of her silk. Males should walk a fine line between being bold but not aggressive in courting. In a small minority of mating encounters, the female may tend to eat the male. Sometimes this can happen before they successfully mate if the confrontation goes wrong. It has also been documented that males can eat older females with lower reproductive value, but this situation is rarer than the other way around.

Whether the male survives the encounter or not, the female is left alone to lay dozens of eggs and assume most of the duties of raising children. One of the many distinctive features of the wolf spider is the fact that the female will wrap the eggs with silk and carry the egg bag around her abdomen. After hatching, the Born spiders will come out of the bag and climb the mother's back for the rest of her life. After several weeks, small spiders will become large enough to live on their own. They are the only species of spiders known to carry their young on their backs. Most spiders Wolf to live for one year, although some can live for up to two years. Wolf spiders need to produce as many offspring as possible before they die due to their shorter life span. Are killed, many of these offspring early and live long enough to mate. For this reason, spiders prefer to reproduce in large quantities.

Wolf Spider Babies

Wolf spider numbers

Conservationists consider that most species of wolf spider are not seriously threatened. Their enormous adaptability has made them one of the most successful animals on the planet thanks to their wide distribution and stable populations. But there are several exceptions to this rule. According to the Red List of the International Union for conservation of Nature (IUCN), some of the species found in small islands such as desert enthusiasm Saint Helena compromised significantly . Many other species are either endangered or at risk . Due to the sheer number of species, many of which are very rare and far, hard to follow and save them all. Exact population numbers are completely unknown.

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