Since today is Halloween I decided that I should try and post something that is fitting with the season. So what better macro subject fits with All Hallows Eve then a spider. I photographed this wolf spider at the
Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin.
There are over 200 different species of wolf spiders around the world. They are typically brown and black in color. All wolf spiders have 8 different eyes. The eyes are arranged in three rows with four small eyes in the bottom row, two large eyes in the middle row, and two medium eyes in the top row. Unfortunately I could not get the spider to look directly at me for the picture so most of the eyes are not visible in these pics.
With all of their eyes, wolf spider have very good eye sight. This is important because wolf spiders do not use webs to catch their prey, like many other spiders do. Instead they hunt for their prey, patrolling the ground in search of insects and other spiders. They do have a venomous bite but the venom is usually not harmful to people and typically only leads to some swelling and itching.
The white ball at the back end of the spider in the picks above is an egg sack. Wolf spiders often lay many eggs at once which they wrap up in webbing and carry around attached to their spinnerets. These eggs take about two to four weeks to hatch. Once they hatch the young spiders will
crawl from the webbing and hitch a ride on the back of mom's abdomen.
Since today is Halloween I decided that I should try and post something that is fitting with the season. So what better macro subject fits with All Hallows Eve then a spider. I photographed this wolf spider at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin.
There are over 200 different species of wolf spiders around the world. They are typically brown and black in color. All wolf spiders have 8 different eyes. The eyes are arranged in three rows with four small eyes in the bottom row, two large eyes in the middle row, and two medium eyes in the top row. Unfortunately I could not get the spider to look directly at me for the picture so most of the eyes are not visible in these pics.
With all of their eyes, wolf spider have very good eye sight. This is important because wolf spiders do not use webs to catch their prey, like many other spiders do. Instead they hunt for their prey, patrolling the ground in search of insects and other spiders. They do have a venomous bite but the venom is usually not harmful to people and typically only leads to some swelling and itching.
The white ball at the back end of the spider in the picks above is an egg sack. Wolf spiders often lay many eggs at once which they wrap up in webbing and carry around attached to their spinnerets. These eggs take about two to four weeks to hatch. Once they hatch the young spiders will crawl from the webbing and hitch a ride on the back of mom's abdomen.
4 comments:
That is cool. I wonder how many little wolf spiders will come out of that sack. It looks relatively big.
what a great spider
so huge!
great shot
Very interesting post. I love spiders of all kinds, except jumping spiders! And they seem to be the smallest and most difficult to keep track of! Thanks for sharing this information. Perfect post for the season.~karen
what an awesome shot
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