Garden Wolf Spider - The Australian Museum

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Fast Facts

• Classification Genus Tasmanicosa Species godeffroyi Family Lycosidae Order Araneae Class Arachnida Phylum Arthropoda Kingdom Animalia
• Size Range 1.5 cm - 2.2 cm
• Habitats woodland
• Life history mode terrestrial
• Feeding Habits arthropod-feeder, carnivorous, insectivorous, predator

Introduction

Wolf spiders are robust, agile, fast-moving ground hunters that chase down or ambush prey.

Identification

The Garden Wolf Spider is large and strongly patterned in grey, brown and white with a black underside. They have large eyes with which they locate their prey. Their characteristic eye formation is four large eyes arranged in a square on top of the head with four smaller eyes in a row at the front.

Habitat

Garden Wolf Spiders prefer urban areas, forests and woodlands and heath.

Distribution

Garden Wolf Spiders are found throughout southern Australia.

Distribution data sourced from the Atlas of Living Australia

Other behaviours and adaptations

Most live in leaf litter or in burrows in fairly open ground. Its open burrows are often seen in Sydney gardens. The best time to see wolf spiders is at night when they are searching for prey. Use a torch to spot the greenish yellow reflection from their large eyes.

Life history cycle

Female wolf spiders carry their egg sac behind them, attached to the spinnerets (silk-spinning organs) on the abdomen. When the eggs hatch, the spiderlings hitch a ride on the mother's back, clinging onto special knobbed hairs.

Danger to humans

Not known to be dangerous.

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Also in this section

• Prey capture and feeding
• Badge Huntsman Spiders Neosparassus sp.
• Huntsman Spiders Sparassidae
• Black Rock Scorpion Urodacus manicatus
• The hairy spider
• Mysterious Marine Spiders in Sydney Harbour
• Sydney Brown Trapdoor Spider Arbanitis villosus
• Redback Spider Latrodectus hasselti
• White Porch Spider
• Foliage Webbing Spider Phryganoporus candidus
• Net-casting Spiders Deinopidae
• Spiders are everywhere

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The Australian Museum respects and acknowledges the Gadigal people as the First Peoples and Traditional Custodians of the land and waterways on which the Museum stands.

Image credit: gadigal yilimung (shield) made by Uncle Charles Chicka Madden

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