A. cerebus and A. pugnax? - Melocosa fumosa

Male or female?

Male or female? (Pity about the image quality.)

… Kevin Pfeiffer, 16 January, 2012 - 3:24pm

Female?

My guess is female, but it's kind of hard to tell from this image. Of course I've never seen a male.. so they might look quite different for all I know.

… Lynette Elliott, 17 January, 2012 - 10:48am

Moved

Moved from ID Request. I agree with John's comments below. The eyes, range and coloring match perfectly for this species.

… Lynette Elliott, 16 January, 2012 - 10:08am

D. triton? or wolf spider?

I suppose if it's really over an inch it might be D. triton... a very dark version. Compare with

Since the eyes aren't very clear I think it might also be a large wolf spider. The way it's holding its legs looks more like a wolf spider to me.

I'd guess the size might not be correct? We don't include the legs when measuring spiders, and many people don't realize that when posting sizes.

… Lynette Elliott, 15 January, 2012 - 2:52pm

The size corrected

I did speculate that the size was based on leg span. So therefore it would measure much smaller. Possibly measures 30-40mm.

… Jeremy D Butler, 15 January, 2012 - 11:15pm

Not a very good picture, but I think this might be Melocosa fumosa. Rod mentioned that the genus has an eye arrangement that's a bit atypical for a wolf spider. Also, the species does occur in BC and females measure up to 17mm:

Later: Did some more reading in Dondale and Redner (1990). M. fumosa was placed in Pisauridae before Leech moved it to Lycosidae in 1969. The quadrangle formed by the PME and PLE is shorter and broader in Melocosa than for other lycosids. I believe I can see that in this specimen. So, M. fumosa is my first choice, though I'd prefer to see better pictures than these to be reasonably certain.

… John Sloan, 15 January, 2012 - 11:00pm

4 inches/100mm?

The biggest native sp. in Canada is supposed to be Dolomedes tenebrosus with a leg spread of about 60mm It's an eastern sp.

… Larry de March, 15 January, 2012 - 2:28pm