Mansur Al Fahd a local birdwatcher
who is very knowledgeable on all living things sent me a couple of his
photographs of a Wolf Spider he found in his parking area a few weeks ago.
Mansur has kindly allowed me to use the photographs on my website. He mentioned
the spider was big at around ten centimeters in length, but exactly what type
of Wolf Spider it is, is uncertain. Wolf spiders don’t spin webs and they were
probably given their name because they stalk and hunt their prey, just like
wolves do and have a Latin name Lycosidae which is Greek for ‘wolf’.
Wolf Spiders are hairy, brown to gray in color with various markings or lines
and are venomous but not typically aggressive. They are widespread in the
Northern Hemisphere and hunt for their food on the ground as they do not build
webs to catch their prey. They eat a wide variety of insects, including
crickets, beetles, meal worms and cockroaches. Like other spiders, the Wolf
spider has eight eyes but unlike many other spiders it has keen eyesight,
relying on its vision and not on vibration to capture their prey. Their eyes
comprise three rows; the first row has four small eyes; the second row has two
larger eyes and the third row has two medium-sized eyes.
