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Photo#66766
Kukulcania hibernalis (with a question) - Kukulcania hibernalis

Kukulcania hibernalis (with a question) - Kukulcania hibernalis
Collegedale, Hamilton County, Tennessee, USA
July 26, 2006
Are there several species that look similar to these?

In some of my other pictures of them they are different colors.

In the Audubon guide book it lists a spider that looks really similar to this one and calls them Wandering Spiders.

The answer to your question is yes,
but they would be western species. In TN, you are likely to encounter only this species. Males are tan in color even before they reach maturity. If you've taken pictures of smaller Kukulkanias, you may have been seeing an immature male. I've raised many of these spiders and currently have an immature male. I may take some pictures of the before and after. It's quite a transition to adulthood as is the case with many spiders.

K.hibernalis
There DOES appear to be two color phases of the females in this species, as I've seen several that were distinctively brown and others that were jet-black. I know the brown ones were females because of their size, and I've seen brown ones with eggsacs(I actually have one as a pet which has an eggsac now, and she is chocolate-brown, and I have many photos of large brown females). I cannot figure out, though, if there are actually two color phases, or if the brownish ones are just in bad need of a moult, since many tarantulas turn brownish and dull when they need to moult, and regain their true colors after a moult, so this could be true of K. hibernalis as well. The light golden-brown ones, which are really skinny and leggy, are mature males, which look quite different from females of any color phase. The only "Wandering Spider" I'm aware of is the Brazilian Wandering Spider, a very dangerous arachnid which does not look much at all like a Kukulcania, but then that goes to show how deceptive common names can be!

Sharon McKenzie

 
interesting
well the book lists a wandering spider family: Ctenidae. and also a: Ctenus spp. (whatever that means.)

 
Ctenidae
This family is similar in some respects to the Wolf Spiders, and the Wandering Spiders of the genus Phoneutria(which can be quite dangerous to humans) are included in the group. This is largely a tropical group of spiders, found mostly in South American and the Old World, and bears little resemblence to the Kukulcanias. There are many physical difference, including the eye arrangment, which in Kukulcania is similar to that of tarantulas and other Mygalamorphs.

Sharon McKenzie

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