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Photo#1031590
Varacosa - dorsal - Varacosa shenandoa - male

Varacosa - dorsal - Varacosa shenandoa - Male
Austin, Travis County, Texas, USA
January 6, 2015
Size: 9.5mm
Allen Dean at TAMU determined this to be Varacosa shenandoa from these photos.

I have been unable to walk the SONA key, the key in Dondale & Redner 1978, or the key in Dondale & Redner 1980 to get to the genus Varacosa. Best I can do seems to be Schizocosa, but the palp is clearly a great match for Varacosa shenandoa. Revisiting the specimen for papers on Varacosa confirms this for me as well. I think I'm going to need a few more tricks to tackle lycosids. This was my first attempt to ID a lycosid.

Images of this individual: tag all
Varacosa - dorsal - Varacosa shenandoa - male Varacosa - angled - Varacosa shenandoa - male Varacosa - ventral - Varacosa shenandoa - male Varacosa - palp ventral - Varacosa shenandoa - male Varacosa - palp slightly distal - Varacosa shenandoa - male Varacosa - palp retrolateral - Varacosa shenandoa - male

Moved
Moved from Spiders.

I can't help with the key ...
but I made a species page for Varacosa shenandoa. I've suspected ones like this were Varacosa before but not sure enough to file them and have been keeping them all in holding bins ("Trochosa-like" under Lycosidae). I hope a female turns up!

 
..
I definitely have plenty of females, so I should have one shortly. I've been ignoring wolf spiders up until now.

 
Looking forward ...
to seeing them!

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

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