Like wolf spiders, wandering spiders or Ctenids can be quite easily found amongst leaf litter by the trails or under logs. But they are somewhat larger than Lycosids, which can be easily distinguished by a straight row of four small anterior eyes below a pair of large posterior median eyes. This specimen, like another found much earlier, looks like Ctenus floweri as depicted in the Murphys' seminal study. However, sorely little is known about their ecology and habits, other than a dandy observation that the spiders "roam aimlessly (often in a dozy fashion) over the leaf litter." This robust individual was far from sleepy though, as she scuttled furiously over a log and a month of dried leaves in a futile effort to elude my fowl attention.
Awesome.
Posted by: Moe | 17 March 2009 at 09:06 AM