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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Chelicerates (Chelicerata) » Arachnids (Arachnida) » Spiders (Araneae) » True Spiders (Araneomorphae) » Entelegynae » Nursery Web Spiders (Pisauridae) » Fishing Spiders (Dolomedes) » tenebrosus group (Dolomedes tenebrosus group) » Dolomedes okefinokensis

Species Dolomedes okefinokensis

Classification · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Explanation of Names · Size · Identification · Range · Habitat · Food · Remarks · See Also · Print References · Internet References · Works Cited

Fishing Spider - Dolomedes okefinokensis - female

Hairy Spider at Manatee Springs - Dolomedes okefinokensis

large fishing spider - Dolomedes okefinokensis - male

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Chelicerata (Chelicerates)

Class Arachnida (Arachnids)

Order Araneae (Spiders)

Infraorder Araneomorphae (True Spiders)

No Taxon (Entelegynae)

Family Pisauridae (Nursery Web Spiders)

Genus Dolomedes (Fishing Spiders)

No Taxon (tenebrosus group)

Species okefinokensis (Dolomedes okefinokensis)

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

See the World Spider Catalog.

Explanation of Names

Dolomedes okefinokensis Bishop, 1924

Okefinokee (the name of the swamp) + -ensis, a Latin ending that means "found at, living in (a place)"

Size

Body length of adult female ~30mm, of adult male ~8mm.(1)

Identification

This species is not distinguishable from D. tenebrosus without looking at characteristics of the palp/epigynum (Carico, 1973).

Range

Georgia & Florida according to Carico's revision(2), but also Alabama & Louisiana according to the original description by Bishop(1).

Habitat

Carico (1973) says they are typically collected in swampy areas where they perch vertically on trees. Bishop (1924) says they may stray away from water as in the case of Dolomedes tenebrosus.

Food

Usually aquatic insects but also small fish, tadpoles, frogs, etc.

Remarks

Adult female D. okefinokensis may actually be the largest species of Dolomedes. See the measurements given in Bishop's original description (females attain 30mm in body length) and in Carico 1973. The next largest is D. tenebrosus, the adult females reaching up to 26mm in body length.

See Also

Other species of Dolomedes.

Print References

Bishop, S. C., 1924b. A revision of the Pisauridae of the United States. New York State Museum Bulletin 252: 1-140. (1)

Carico, J. E., 1973. The Nearctic species of the genus Dolomedes (Araneae: Pisauridae). Bulletin Museum of Comparative Zoology Harvard 144: 435-488. (Species Description Here)

Sierwald, P., 1989b. Morphology and ontogeny of female copulatory organs in American Pisauridae, with special reference to homologous features (Arachnida: Araneae). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 484: 1-24. (PDF available here)

Internet References

iNaturalist

GBIF

Works Cited

1.	A revision of the Pisauridae of the United States Sherman C. Bishop. 1924. New York State Museum Bulletin 252: 1-140.

2.	The Neartic Species of the Genus Dolomedes (Araneae: Pisauridae) James Edwin Carico. 1973. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Vol. 144, No. 7 Cambridge, Mass., March 13.

Contributed by john and jane balaban on 31 December, 2005 - 4:48pm
Additional contributions by cheins, Chuck Entz, Mandy Howe, Nathaniel Green
Last updated 18 December, 2020 - 3:30pm

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