Question about Dolomedes

[Stefan2209]

Hi all,

i´m looking for a certain species of Dolomedes:

Size: leg span something between 6 - 7"

Colour: whitish

Origin: USA, Texas

Is there any such species within the mentioned genus?

Is there any such species regardless of the genus and origin at all in the US?

Thanks in advance.

(And me stupid thought, D. tenebrosus would be the biggest Dolomedes of all inside the US...)

Greetings,

Stefan

[gunslinger]

Stefan,

I dont know of any Dolomedes species that gets that kind of leg span. Dolomedes tenebrosus and Dolomedes okefinokensis both could get maybe 4-5 inches but I dont think any larger than that.

I dont know if there is such a spider in the US at all. I suppose the occasional Heteropoda venatoria could be found in Texas, and some Hogna species get decent sized, but again these spiders dont get 6-7 inches.

Have you actually heard of such a spider? Or is it just some curiosity.

[Stefan2209]

Hi,

thanks for the reply!

Got some kind of ridiculous debate going on with another German hobbyist who is believing in tell-tale reports of such a species.

By his description, location and everything else, it should just be D. albineus. BUT he´s still believing the spider should be bigger than ANY Ancylometes can get...

Well, i have never dealt first hand with Dolomedes, but have always been interested in the US species of this genus, though i´ve never heard that those should be able to grow up to that sizes.

I´m well used to Ancylometes, more than most other European hobby keepers. I´ve kept my first specimen some 10 yeras ago and have since then kept aswell cb specimen as wc ones.
Finally, i have found Ancylometes in the Amazon area and those can get, well, just large.

The biggest living specimen i have personally seen had more than 2" body and more than 7" legspan.
Some South - American sites even mention specimen with 8" legspan, though, i´ve never seen such a big specimen for myself.

And now that statement: bigger than any Ancylometes? As much as i adore Dolomedes (especially those whitish S. albineus...), i just take this for a fluke.

Greetings,

Stefan

[gunslinger]

Stefan,

I think you are correct. I find it VERY improbable that even a freak huge US Dolomedes could rival large Ancylometes at all. I dont know much about the genus outside of the US though.

Does this person have a photograph of his "monster"?
Where did he hear of such a spider? Im very interested in large US true spiders, so if he has some info that I dont know of Id love to hear about it.

[Stefan2209]

Hi again,

no, that person has no pic. I have told him exactly the very same: i don´t believe in this and want to see a picture or measurements that have been taken in a research facility.

The whole story started at last years Arachnocon, the Germans Volker v. Wirth and Martin Huber have apparently collected such a specimen in Texas. Back in Germany there are now these "tell tales" about a spider that´s much bigger than ANY Ancylometes.

Well, i know about Ancylometes and i know about German hobbyists who don´t know how to raise captive bred specimen to the size they can achieve by nature.
So the only solution to this i can think of is that they just referr to cb specimen of Ancylometes that haven´t reached their full size potential.

I´d really like the idea of something like D. albineus geeting as big as for example just A. bogotensis (and this is by far not the biggest Ancylometes species) the problem is that i don´t have any clue that those can even closely resemble that sizes.

Guess, if one happens to find a Dolomedes with more than 4" leg span that person could already dub himself lucky.

Nevertheless, nice spiders, especially that D. albineus. :rolleyes:

Greetings,

Stefan

[Macrospider]

Megadolomedes from Austrialia who resembles Dolomedes are bigger than Dolomedes species. But I'm sure that Megadolomedes is smaller than many Ancylometes species.

[Stefan2209]

Hi,

if i take other locations than the US or Canada into acccount i wouldn´t have THAT big of a problem to believe this.

Some Pisaurids can get really large, at least by leg span. Trechaleidae is just one example...

However, with the species native to the US and Canada and also Europe it´s just rather small sized in comparison to the tropical Ancylometes.

I´d already be glad if there´d be just ONE documented account of such a big specimen, but till now i just came up with specimen that were way smaller than the 6" mark.

Greetings,

Stefan

[Crotalus]

The whole story started at last years Arachnocon, the Germans Volker v. Wirth and Martin Huber have apparently collected such a specimen in Texas. Back in Germany there are now these "tell tales" about a spider that´s much bigger than ANY Ancylometes.

Why not asking them how big the specimen was

[Stefan2209]

Why not asking them how big the specimen was

Hi there,

cause i´m not in direct touch with those guys. I inquired at that guy who is that hardly defending this story about pictures, so i´ll just wait and see if he delivers...

However, i doubt it.

In the meantime, next to have a chat with all you guys who should know best about what´s creeping around in your evry own vicinity i´m still in touch with some other guys with which i talked about that topic.

One send me e really noteworthy pic that i won´t keep top myself. As this is not my picture you´ll just have to hit the link...

Dolomedes yawatai (http://mirukashihime.cool.ne.jp/surpris4.htm)

and scroll down a little bit, you´ll know instantly what i mean as soon as you see the spider on that guys hand...

Well, THAT is big. However i doubt that the US species will have that size.

Even if they would, another site that´s making comments about the pictured species mentioned sizes up to 4cm body length in females. Quite large, but Ancylometes is still ahead.

At least the biggest Dolomedes spec. i´ve seen a pic of so far, maybe there´s even more. However, this is of course an Asian species, from Ryukyu Island, to be exact.

Wouldn´t be too easy to get hold of those i guess...

Greetings,

Stefan

[syndicate]

wow that is a a large dolomedes!is that mature male to?