Bugging You From San Juan Island

Here’s a clip of my little Wolf Spider, Tarentula kochii a.k.a. Alopecosa kochii (ID credit to  Rod Crawford at Seattle’s Burke Museum). He ever-so-kindly responded to my email query for help.  According to Rod, this spider is “a local native wolf spider and somewhat uncommon and rare.”   I found it in the doorway two days ago (10-23-18) and worried the cat injured it, but as you can see, it is moving a little. After examining it carefully, it looks uninjured, but possibly suffering from another spider bite…recent molt…or dehydration.   I attempted to get it to drink some water using a tiny syringe but was unsuccessful…or perhaps too late.  I also got some great advice on the correct way to give spiders a drink of water from Rod, who says:  “For future reference, the way to give a spider a drink is to rest the mouth area (under the front of the “head”) directly in a drop of water.”

If you are interested in learning more about this species of Wolf Spider, here are some links to check out:

https://bugguide.net/node/view/1490575

Click to access A42-42-1990-17-eng.pdf