The burrow my spider was hanging out at the entrance of was wide, vertical, and very deep. I tried to read up on Tigrosa helluo and it said that their burrows were shallow and typically under rocks. I'm not trying to argue I just want to be completely sure. I'm working on classifying everything I find and I didn't know if the burrow made a difference in you guys' decision. Thank you so much for ALL of your hard work and help.

Kindes regards,
Tiffany Pritchard

as I can be that this is a Tigrosa short of seeing the genitalia. I'm not as familiar with their burrowing habits as I'd like to be. The only Tigrosa burrows I've come across were in a vertical wall of dirt on the side of a ditch hidden by weeds. They looked like this one though that was found under a rock:

Spiders are quite adaptable to their burrowing tendencies. I've seen many species adapt to various structures for burrowing tendencies. In the past, I have observed adult female Hogna carolinensis ignore burrows and simply wander about searching for prey. Likewise, I have seen some individuals simply adopt used burrows of other spiders. The shapes and structures of the burrows also vary from habitat to habitat. In flood prone areas, I have observed spiders that have extra amounts of grass around the turrets of the burrow (possibly to block out water). Wolf spiders are still fairly hard to identify and there are many species out there yet to be labeled.
However, I am 100% sure this isn't a Geolycosa species. While individual behavior may vary, what doesn't vary is the body structure and coloration. Unfortunately, you do not have a ventral picture of the spider. Ventrals are very important for the identification of most lycosids so that is something to consider in the future. Likewise, judging from the shape of the carapace, it certainly does not scream Geolycosa. As mentioned above, all Geolycosa spiders have an extremely domed, helmet shaped forehead. This particular individual has the classic Tigrosa shaped forehead. Within Ohio, the two species of Tigrosa that reach that particular size would be the Tigrosa aspersa and Tigrosa helluo. Your individual seems more T. helluo. However, I don't have an exact body length measurement to work off of (T. helluo tend to be less than 21mm in body length whereas T. aspersa can reach 25mm). For future reference, having a ventral picture will clear some issues up. You can put the spider in a plastic bag and flip it over to take a photograph. Doing so quickly will not injure the spider. Cheers!

Geolycosa rafaelana ... the domed shaped heads of Geolycosa may vary. I almost mistake them for Pardosa. :D


I wouldn't use size to distinguish between T. helluo and T. aspersa ... the first T. helluo I found was a whopper:

I am soooo appreciative of the time you take to clarify and answer questions. That plastic bag tip is priceless. Never once did that cross my mind. Just one more issue I need cleared up. How do you measure something that won't sit still? Do you use the plastic bag for that as well? What do you measure? Head to butt? Do you include legs?

use the plastic bag. Tip of the nose excluding palps to the end of the abdomen.
Edit: I said tip of the nose, but I believe it should also include protruding chelicerae. Need to look up if it includes long spinnerets.

Thanks!

I found that drier, slightly sloped ground, with dry, sandy soil will have the best yields for Geolycosa.