Wolf Spiders

• Name: Wolf spiders are members of the Lycosidae family of spiders and take their name from the ancient Greek word for “wolf.”
• Appearance: Brown or dark in coloration with bristled legs and gray or black patterning; they can resemble tarantulas, brown recluse and fishing spiders
• Eyes: Their eight eyes are positioned in three rows with two large eyes in the middle row, giving these agile and active hunters excellent eyesight. Their eyes are reflective, which can be helpful in detecting them with a flashlight.
• Size: up to 1.2 inches in body length with a total length of 4 inches including their legs
• Habitat: prevalent throughout the U.S., especially in California, Texas and South Carolina.

With 125 species of wolf spiders in the US, these lone hunters, rarely found in groups, thrive all over the country. As one of the country’s most abundant spiders, wolf spiders are so common in California they have been called California Wolf Spiders. The Texas Rabid Wolf Spider is known as the largest spider in the Lone Star state. In 2000, South Carolina designated the Carolina Wolf Spider, the largest of the wolf spiders, as its official state spider, making South Carolina the only US state to recognize a state spider.

The wolf spider’s most distinctive feature revolves around the fact that female wolf spiders carry their egg sacs and young spiderlings with them. Attached by spinnerets at the end of the female’s abdomen, the female wolf spider carries her egg sac with her while she hunts. At the appropriate time, the female spider opens the egg sac with her powerful jaws and her spiderlings scurry onto the top of her abdomen, where she protects them until their first molt.