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Photo#670018
Do I have a rabid Wolf Spider? - Schizocosa

Do I have a rabid Wolf Spider? - Schizocosa
Teller County, Colorado, USA
July 4, 2012
I found this outside of my apartment. It looks to me like a rabid wolf spider. Any details anyone can give me would be appreciated.

Moved to Schizocosa
Moved from ID Request. I'm going ahead with this ID for now, but sometimes I get pretty confused between this genus & Alopecosa.

 
Schizocosa
I can see why. To me, it resembles the Schizocosa pics more strongly than the Alopecosa. Also, I live in a mountainous, dry, forested area. If I'm not mistaken, this is not the likely habitat for Alopecosa, though I admit I don't know that much about them.

Schizocosa
I think you're right about that. Species- I'm still not sure. I don't have any extreme close-ups, my camera doesn't do that. So it may be hard to be really sure about this one.

 
Hard to be sure
I suspect it won't be possible to ID to species on this one. S. avida does occur in CO, but so do 5 other species in the genus according to the info page. Someone who knows the genus might be able to narrow it down, I'm unsure.

PS. a neat trick to turn just about any camera into an excellent macro tool is to hold a standard photographic lens backwards in front of your camera's lens. You can get some pretty ridiculous magnification that way - I've had good luck in the past doing that with my compact.

 
Thanks!
Thanks for the tip! I'll bet my dad has one. He's got a bunch of lenses! Of course I'd have to set the spider down. :)

Yeah, there are a bunch of these running around here. I see them every summer. I got my camera for Christmas so I might post more in the future.

Schizocosa?
I think this one might actually be in the genus Schizocosa, but I'm not sure what species. Here's a Schizocosa avida for comparison:

 
Schizocosa
Thank you. I'll check that out. It does look like it.

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