Trivia question for Mar-19-2011

Olivia’s turn again and she decided to pick another attractive looking creature.  Let’s see how she does with her trivia.  These are one of the few spiders who don’t spin webs to catch prey.

These guys are robust and agile hunters with good eyesight. They live mostly solitary lives and hunt alone. Some are opportunistic hunters pouncing upon prey as they find it or even chasing it over short distances. Some will even wait for passing prey in or near the mouth of a burrow.

So here are Olivia’s questions.  Tell us what kind of spider this is and tell us how you can tell the difference of this spider verses the Nursery web spiders.  Also tell us why these spiders were given their name?

Good Luck 😉

Answer:

Well Olivia did great with this one.  Lot’s of guesses but no one figured out exactly what we what this guy was.  The spider we featured is actually a Wolf Spider.  Wolf Spiders look similar to Nursery Web Spiders and about the only way you can tell the difference is by looking at their eyes.  Two of the Wolf spider’s eight eyes are large and prominent, which distinguishes them from the Nursery web spiders whose eyes are all of approximately equal size.

Wolf spiders were so named because it was once thought that they hunted their prey in packs, but we now know that they typically travel alone.  Here is more on these hairy spiders:  Wolf Spider

Thanks for playing along 😉