Ten Legged Spider???

LiquidAir

Saw this fellow crawling across the garage floor tonight. Shot with the 5D, 100mm macro and cropped a bit the frame is about 30mm wide so he's a pretty good sized spider (at least for my neighborhood). My best guess is that he is some flavor of Solifugae or sun spider, but I really don't know what he is.



Thanks.

Lord Vetinari

Lovely shot - looks like a sac spider species. Only 8 legs and 2 palps near the fangs.
Brian v.

paddler4

Nice shot. I don't know what else they are used for, but the palps in front (also called pedipalps) are used to stuff food into their mouths:

LiquidAir

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Lovely shot - looks like a sac spider species. Only 8 legs and 2 palps near the fangs.
Brian v.

Thanks.

After a bit more research I found out it is a dysdera crocata, commonly known as a woodlouse spider. Presumably the palps are large because they need to be able to crack open a woodlouse (which I grew up calling a roly-poly or pill bug).

LiquidAir

paddler4 wrote:

Nice shot. I don't know what else they are used for, but the palps in front (also called pedipalps) are used to stuff food into their mouths:

Thanks. I took a closer look and, like in your remarkable shot, the palps on the woodlouse spider are jointed. In my shot that joint is mostly hidden which makes it look like there is an extra set of legs. In this tighter crop from my shot the joint is clearer. Next time I see one, I know better what I want to capture if I can. This fellow was running around and was I chasing him with camera one hand and strobe in the other so I pretty much had to take what I could get.

paddler4

The species in mine is much easier to catch. They spin webs in convenient places, like under eaves, and then just sit there a lot of the time. As long as you don't scare them--the thump of setting down my tripod scared that one away once--they will just sit there and let you take pictures. It's much harder when they run around. I posted this one earlier, but because it is relevant, I'll post it again. I ran around the room chasing this guy, with a shoe-mounted flash and so I could shoot with one hand, and finally just put my finger in his path:

LiquidAir

I like the finger in that shot as it really gives a sense of scale. When I disturbed the woodlouse spider too much he would stop and do this:



which kept him still but didn't make for the greatest of pictures.