Hobo Spider Wolf Spider | How to Spot the Difference

·         The hobo spider, Eratigena agrestis, was formerly known as Tegenaria agrestis, and belongs to the family of spiders commonly referred to as funnel-web spiders.

·         Individuals spin a silken web in the shape of a funnel and wait at the narrow end for unsuspecting insects to stumble into it.

·         It is not uncommon for hobo spiders to construct their webs near or even inside human dwellings.

·         The hobo spider’s egg hatching period spans from late spring to the following September. The male hobo spider only lives long enough to mate once before it dies.

·         Naturalist Charles Athanase Walckenaer initially described the species in 1802, naming it Aranea agrestis for the fields, woods, and rocks in western Europe where it was found.

·         The range of Eratigena agrestis extends from Europe and Central Asia to the western regions of North America, specifically the Pacific Northwest and the Great Basin.

·         They have keen eyesight and a strong constitution, making them effective hunters. They tend to be solitary beings who undertake most of their hunting independently and who don’t bother with webs.

·         There are those that will pounce on their prey the moment they see it, while others may wait at the entrance to a burrow for passing prey.

·         Wolf spiders are similar to nursery web spiders (family Pisauridae), but the latter attach their egg sacs to their chelicerae and pedipalps while the former attach them to their spinnerets.

·         Wolf spiders are easily distinguished from nursery web spiders because two of their eight eyes are much larger and more noticeable than the others.

·         In addition, this feature can be used to tell them apart from grass spiders, which seem very similar.

·         Wolf spiders are thought to have emerged sometime in the late Paleocene, after the K–Pg extinction event, with the majority of their main subfamilies, probably having emerged in the Eocene and Early Oligocene, some 41–32 million years ago.

·         The brownish hobo spider ranges in size from 7 mm to 14 mm.

·         Spiders can only be identified by dissecting their bodies.

·         The female and male sex organs of Eratigena agrestis, that are required for positive identification.

·         Hobo spiders don’t have the colored bands near their leg joints like many other spiders in the family Agelenidae have.

·         There are a number of chevron (V-shaped) patterns down the center of the abdomen, all of which point in the direction of the head.

·         One distinguishing feature of hobo spiders is a bright stripe that runs vertically down the center of their chests.

·         If, on the other hand, the spider has three or four sets of light dots on the lateral sections of the sternum, it is likely to belong to one of the other two closely related Eratigena species.

·         Although the lack of spots is suggestive of a hobo spider, it is not definitive evidence. Other Eratigena species may have much fainter spots.

·         Unlike most spiders, hobo spiders do not have two parallel dark stripes at the top of their cephalothorax. Instead, their cephalothoracic patterns are more amorphous and less defined.

They have eight eyes in a three-row arrangement.

·         In contrast to the Pisauridae, whose eyes are all relatively small, these fish have two very large eyes in the middle row and two smaller eyes in the top row.

·         Wolf spiders have exceptional vision, which sets them apart from most other types of spiders and other arthropods.

·         The retroreflective tapetum lucidum is a structural component of the eye. A wolf spider’s four larger eyes (“secondary eyes”) are the only ones to contain this reflective tissue.

·         If you shine a light over a spider, you’ll notice what’s called “eyeshine,” which is most visible when the light’s axis is about perpendicular to that of the observer or sensor.

·         The wolf spider is one of the few spider species that carries its eggs. The spider’s egg sac is a circular silken globe that is linked to the spinnerets at the end of the abdomen.

·         To prevent the egg case from dragging on the floor, the abdomen must be kept in a high position. They can nevertheless hunt successfully despite this drawback.

·         Wolf spiders are also distinct due to their parenting style. The spiderlings climb up their mother’s legs and cluster on the dorsal side of her abdomen as soon as they leave the cocoon.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published case studies in the 2000s suggesting that necrosis in humans was induced by hobo spider bites; however, as of the year 2021, the CDC no longer included hobo spiders on its list of venomous species.

There is no proof that hobo spider bites result in skin necrosis in Canada.

It’s possible that the hobo spider was responsible for several attacks that were attributed to the closely related desert grass spider, Agelenopsis aperta.

Some South American species have been blamed in the past for necrotic bites, but recent research suggests that other genera are more likely to be responsible.

Even while Australian wolf spiders have been linked to necrotic wounds, research has demonstrated that this is not the case.