Advertisement
Fun Facts
Did You Know?
Male Rabidosa rabida courtship behavior produces one of the more spectacular invertebrate performances available at North Louisiana open habitats in late summer and fall. A displaying male encounters a female or her silk drag-line, detects chemical signals in the silk, and initiates a visual display that involves rapid up-down waving of the front leg pair combined with lateral body vibrations, produced at rates that observers describe as "vibrating" or "shaking" rather than waving
If This Animal Could Talk...
"Watch closely, respect my space, and let my habitat explain the rest of the story."
Rabidosa rabida, the rabid wolf spider, carries a common name that generates more anxiety than it warrants and a behavior that justifies the "rabid" label in a specific, non-threatening sense: adult males perform elaborate, vigorous leg-waving courtship displays that observers describe as erratic or frantic, producing the movement pattern that inspired the common name. The spider behaves as if agitated because, during courtship, it functionally is, deploying an intense visual display aimed at females of the species rather than at any observer who happens to witness the performance.
Rabidosa rabida occurs throughout North Louisiana at garden, woodland edge, and open-field positions from spring through fall. Medium to medium-large in size, distinctly striped on the cephalothorax, and most conspicuous in fall when mating season produces the male leg-waving displays that bring the species to observer attention, this wolf spider rewards any observer who has seen a male display and never forgotten the performance.
A Few More Facts
How they hunt and forage: Flying and crawling insects at the size range accessible to a medium wolf spider hunting on both vertical vegetation surfaces and ground positions: flies, small moths, aphids, leafhoppers, and various other arthropods that use the same vegetation surfaces as hunting positions. Vegetation surface hunting adds prey access that strictly ground-hunting wolf spiders miss: insects resting on grass stems, aphid colonies on plant stems, and leafhoppers that use vertical stem surfaces as primary habitat all represent prey resources that Rabidosa rabida accesses by using those same surfaces.
Live birth or eggs? no
When young are born: See the detailed species sections below.
What Is the Spotted Wolf Spider Often Confused With?
Adults span three-eighths to five-eighths of an inch. The cephalothorax shows a distinctive pattern: a pale median stripe flanked by two dark lateral stripes with paler stripes outside those, producing a multi-stripe pattern that distinguishes Rabidosa rabida from the less distinctly striped wolf spiders of comparable size. The abdomen shows a pale center stripe with variable spotting or chevron marks on the lateral surfaces, contributing to the overall striped appearance that produces the genus recognition before species-level examination. Males show proportionally longer legs than females relative to body size, an attribute that functions in the vigorous leg-waving display that distinguishes them during courtship. The long first-pair legs, raised and waved in specific patterns that transmit visual signals to females, make displaying males conspicuously identifiable to any observer who encounters one in the act.
Drag the handle left and right to compare Spotted Wolf Spider side by side with the species it gets mistaken for most.
Open the visual comparison tool
1 of 3
Advertisement
Accessibility
Accessibility
Spotted wolf spiders on grass stems, garden shrubs, and field edge vegetation throughout North Louisiana from spring through fall present for observation at standing or kneeling height from maintained garden paths and trail edges. The fall courtship display peak in September and October produces the most conspicuous and most photogenic observation opportunities, with displaying males holding visible positions on vegetation surfaces for extended periods during the display sequence. Any North Louisiana garden or grassland margin from late spring through fall holds the habitat for this species.
Advertisement
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Spotted Wolf Spider live in North Louisiana?
Yes. Rabidosa rabida occurs throughout North Louisiana at garden, woodland edge, and open-field positions from spring through fall. Garden vegetation, woodland edge shrubs, tall grass, and old field habitats throughout North Louisiana from spring through fall. Finding a wolf spider on a grass stem or low shrub branch at a North Louisiana garden or field edge rather than on the ground surface tilts the identification toward this species before the stripe pattern gets examined.
How do you identify Spotted Wolf Spider?
Adults span three-eighths to five-eighths of an inch. The cephalothorax shows a distinctive pattern: a pale median stripe flanked by two dark lateral stripes with paler stripes outside those, producing a multi-stripe pattern that distinguishes Rabidosa rabida from the less distinctly striped wolf spiders of comparable size. The abdomen shows a pale center stripe with variable spotting or chevron marks on the lateral surfaces, contributing to the overall striped appearance that produces the genus recognition before species-level examination. Males show proportionally longer legs than females relative to body size, an attribute that functions in the vigorous leg-waving display that distinguishes them during courtship. The long first-pair legs, raised and waved in specific patterns that transmit visual signals to females, make displaying males conspicuously identifiable to any observer who encounters one in the act.
What does Spotted Wolf Spider eat?
What Spotted Wolf Spiders Eat
Flying and crawling insects at the size range accessible to a medium wolf spider hunting on both vertical vegetation surfaces and ground positions: flies, small moths, aphids, leafhoppers, and various other arthropods that use the same vegetation surfaces as hunting positions. Vegetation surface hunting adds prey access that strictly ground-hunting wolf spiders miss: insects resting on grass stems, aphid colonies on plant stems, and leafhoppers that use vertical stem surfaces as primary habitat all represent prey resources that Rabidosa rabida accesses by using those same surfaces.
Is Spotted Wolf Spider dangerous to people?
It is not aggressive toward people. Bites are uncommon and usually happen only when a spider is trapped against skin, so observe without handling
