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Home » Forums » General Discussion

Need help identifying large spider

Hello. We have a home in north Georgia. We were digging in our back yard
and found a large black spider. It is about 1.5-2 inches in length (not
counting the legs). The main body is a hard shell with short legs. It has
a large backside (butt) that looks very smooth but could possibly have very
short hair on it. The spider has fangs and used them on a stick we put in front of it. It looks VERY similar to a female mouse spider but with shorter
stockier legs. Obviously it isn't a mouse spider because they are in Australia. Any ideas?
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Contributed by alexslone on 6 March, 2006 - 8:17pm

You figured it out!!
It was the purseweb spider! We had never seen anything like it before.
Thanks to all of you who wrote in with your opinions!
… alexslone, 7 March, 2006 - 6:43pm login or register to post comments

more possibilities
of course Chuck may be right but you mentioned that it had short legs and looked like a mouse spider with large fangs...
purseweb spider perhaps?

maybe a gnaphosid??
hope that was of any help
… Omar Fahmy, 6 March, 2006 - 9:47pm login or register to post comments

 
You're right
The short legs make Black Widows unlikely.

How about some kind of Trapdoor Spider?
… Chuck Entz, 6 March, 2006 - 11:10pm login or register to post comments

 
Try
here (my guess) and
here (another link to basically the same place)
… Jeff Hollenbeck, 7 March, 2006 - 12:09am login or register to post comments

Possibilities
"Large black spider" immediately suggests the possibility of an adult female Black Widow- probably Latrodectus mactans, the Southern Black Widow. If there's a red hourglass on the underside, that's your spider. Its bite can be very harmful, even deadly, but you're not likely to get bitten unless you're actually handling the spider- they'd much rather run and hide.

There's also a much less dangerous relative, the False Black Widow,Steatoda grossa, which has no hourglass.

There may also be other possibilities that more knowledgable folks here could suggest.
… Chuck Entz, 6 March, 2006 - 8:37pm login or register to post comments

 
Really?
Last time I checked, black widows were not subterranean, and certainly don't match in any way the description given. I don't mean to pick on anyone, but we really shouldn't needlessly alarm anyone who comes to us asking for identifications and information. For what it is worth, I would concur that the spider is either a trapdoor spider or a purseweb spider, as both are large and live in burrows.
… Eric R. Eaton, 7 March, 2006 - 11:11am login or register to post comments

 
harmless mistakes
i am sure that it was not Chuck's intention to alarm or to scare anybody away. of course i do not mean to speak on behalf on Chuck.
but there was no harm done,
we will wait until the creator of the post tell's us what they think
… Omar Fahmy, 7 March, 2006 - 2:09pm login or register to post comments

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