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Giant House Spider

Eratigena atrica

Description:

One of the larger spiders encountered in and around structures in the Puget Sound area. I grew up mistakenly calling these Wolf spiders. Then I got a little older and mistakenly called them Hobo spiders. Giant House Spider seems to be the international common name frequently associated with this species. Current North American distribution on wikipedia.org is interesting, showing just two isolated pockets, one in the northwest and another on the east coast.

Habitat:

I have a few of these downstairs. The female collected dirt and small debris from the bottom of the container, made bigger hard clumps and attached them to her egg sac. This later prevented the sac from being crushed when I set the wood lid on the table. I am waiting for them to hatch. ....the female escaped when l failed to completely cover the glass box container with the lid.

Notes:

Check out the you tube video for a cool shot of the palps and chelicera. https://youtu.be/8CB2VK7knSM

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2 Comments

Neil Ross
Neil Ross 6 years ago

Nice spotting. Handsome spider.

Hello Bug A and Welcome to the Project Noah community!
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Bug A
Spotted by
Bug A

Federal Way, Washington, United States

Spotted on Mar 10, 2017
Submitted on Jun 12, 2017

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