WOLF SPIDERS (Family Lycosidae)

Wolf Spiders are some of the most common spiders encountered in the bush in Kenya.  Many species are large and conspicuous, and therefore easy to find (if you’re looking).  Some species are free-living, wandering spiders, while others live in burrows or horizontal sheet webs in short grass.

Wolf Spiders have a very distinct eye pattern (see the close-up photo).  They have two large eyes on the top and to the sides of their cephalothorax.  They have another two large, forward-facing eyes at the vertical front of the cephalothorax, and a further 4 smaller eyes in a horizontal line below them.  If confusion ever arises between a Wolf Spider and a Baboon Spider, look at the eye pattern to determine the difference.  Wolf spiders come in all sizes from tiny to very large.  

Happily, Wolf Spiders’ venom is not harmful to man.

Above: Lycosa sp. WOLF SPIDER.  Close up shot to show distinctive Lycosid eye pattern.  Notice two large eyes laterally placed on top of head, two large eyes front, and four small in a flat (sometimes recurved) line below.  Large chelicerae (fang bases) protrude vertically from below the eyes.  Pedipalps (those small leg-looking things on either side of the chelicerae) and legs have long sensitive "hairs" used as sensory organs.

 Above: Lycosa sp. - BURROWING WOLF SPIDER.  These Lycosids live in vertical burrows in the ground, usually with no cap/trapdoor above the hole.  Females stay close to their burrows even at night when out foraging for food.  Males often wander in search of food and mates.  Some of these can be very large and to the un-trained eye can be confused with Baboon Spiders (Theraphosidae).  However, the eye pattern  is always indicative and easy to see even from a distance.

 Above: Lycosa sp. - BURROWING WOLF SPIDER.  Wolf Spider females attach their egg sacs under the back of their abdomen.  Once the spiderlings hatch, they climb up on their mother's back until they have gone through about 2 moults (instars), similar to scorpions.  If they fall off while she is wandering around on the ground, they simply climb back up one of her legs.

 Above: Hippasa sp. - SHEET WEB WOLF SPIDER.  These Lycosids live on wide flat sheet webs that terminate in a tunnel to a safety retreat in the grass.  The web is constructed in low grass, close to the substrate.  When disturbed on threatened, the spider retreats into the tunnel.  Notice the superb camouflage of the spotted body on a dew-soaked web early in the morning.  These spiders are web bound and do not wander in search of food.

 Above: Hogna sp. - WANDERING WOLF SPIDER.  These are free-living spiders that do not live in burrows or webs.  Often found in leaf litter and short grass in bush and forest habitats.

Above: (Probably) Hogna sp. - WANDERING WOLF SPIDER. Often found in or near buildings.  Completely Harmless.  Notice the front right leg is missing.  With each moult, this leg will slowly begin to grow back.

ORB WEB SPIDERS (Family Araneidae)

Orb webs are the quintessential circular spider webs built between two trees or under the eaves of a roof.  Most of the spiders in this family build some variation on this design.

This is a very diverse family with spiders of all shapes, sizes, colouration, and behaviours.   Females are often almost 1000 times the size of the male.  The orb web is used to trap prey and is often a very beautiful structure.

All members of this family are completely harmless to humans.  Most of them are bound to their webs and will not leave it unless the web is destroyed.

 Above: Caerostris sexcuspidata - BARK SPIDER.  These spiders build a new web every evening after sunset and take it down each morning before sunrise.  During the day they use their superb bark-like camouflage to hide on one of the trees to which their web is attached.

 Above: Cyclosa sp. - GARBAGE LINE SPIDER. These spiders construct a regular orb web but place random debris in a line across the web and hide somewhere amongst it.  Their irregularly shaped abdomen and colouration conceals them perfectly.  Even when the web is disturbed, they do not move, further aiding their camouflage.

 Above: Cyrtophora citricola - TROPICAL TENT WEB SPIDER.  These spiders come in many sizes and colour patterns (the one pictured above is more dull than others).  Their webs are built as large, messy space webs, often amongst long grass next to water or in low Acacia trees.  At the base of the web is a variation of the typical orb-web; a horizontal orb, pulled up in the centre to create a small canopy (as seen in the unfortunately blurry picture below)

 Above: Tropical Tent Web (Cyrtophora sp)

 Above: Gasteracantha falcicornis - KITE SPIDER.  These beautiful, colourful spiders build large, typical orb webs and hang upside down in the centre.  It is thought that their large spikes help to deter predation from birds (although yet unproven).  Despite their somewhat menacing appearance, these beauties are completely harmless to humans.

 Above: Gasteracantha sanguinolenta - KITE SPIDER

 Above: Isoxya tabulata - BOX KITE SPIDER

Above: Neoscona sp - HAIRY FIELD SPIDER.  Similar in size and superficially in appearance to the Bark Spiders (Caerostris spp), these spiders also build large orb webs between trees and under the eaves of roofs to catch nocturnal flying insects.

An Arachnophobe’s Guide to Spiders (A.K.A. “Is it dangerous!?”)

Most people do not go on safari hoping to see spiders and other “creepy-crawlies”.  In fact, most people won’t give spiders a second thought until they find one in their shower or under their bed.  Unfortunately, unless you live in a sterile, sealed box, you will most likely have spiders around you almost all the time.  Many of them are tiny and you probably won’t notice 95% of them, but every once in a while you see one that makes your skin crawl (especially those big nasty hairy ones).  At this point you’ve got a few options (depending on how paralyzed with fear you are).    You can: (A) freeze and scream, waiting for someone more capable to deal with it; (B) kill it; or (C) get closer, identify it, and admire it for its inherent beauty.  Option “C” is probably NOT the first thing you’d think of doing, but once you realize that spiders are not “out to get you”, you can learn to relax around them. 

As with snakes, the fear of spiders is often the fear of the unknown.  However, as with snakes, most spiders are completely harmless, and indeed beneficial to all of us.  If all the spiders on the earth were to just magically disappear, we would all be drowning in a sea of insects!  And in Kenya, there are hardly ANY dangerous spiders that you will ever have to worry about.  Bites from dangerous spiders are VERY uncommon, and serious effects from those bites are even less likely. 

This blog/guide is not meant to be an exhaustive photographic list of all the spiders in Kenya (there are literally thousands of them), but rather a simple guide to representatives of the most common families that one is likely to encounter while on safari (or in some suburbs of Nairobi). 

See subsequent posts for more details/photos.