Striped Wolf Spider

Wolf spider moms are amazing. They haul the beautiful pearly egg sac wherever they go, until the babies hatch. Then they carry the little ones everywhere until they\'re old enough to survive on their own. Wonderful mothers!

We have these patrolling the grass and in the gardens. I was surprised one night when I was out slug hunting to find a wolf spider up on the leaves of a zucchini plant enjoying a meal of some pest insect. Hooray for spiders!

This spider is very often misidentified and i think some of the pictures posted may be incorrect. The spider most often misidentified as Rabidosa punctulata is Rabidsa rabida. both spiders have similar dorsal markings. The easiest way to tell them apart is that punctulata is smaller and has large dark spots or sometimes a completely dark area on its ventral side where as rabida is a tan color on the bottom. Both spiders live in similar habitat and are both beneficial in reducing pest densities however rabida is much more common and more useful due to its size.