Id on scary web thingy thanks

[CHASSYP]

I know its a british forum but....I was in Iberia last week and came across this web/den thingy!!! Scary or what?? Anyone any ideas what could have made it? It was about 3inch across and was set in a shale bank in the hills, seems too be threaded grass around the entrance. I tried to coax it out but lost my bottle when the wife started screaming!! Noooooo!!!!

[wildherbalian85]

Probably a small rodent. Mouse, vole or something similiar.

[No.9 Spider]

Can you expand on detail of the web? Interesting woven flora around the entrance, can't imagine what could do that really.



No.9 Spider

[ladyhawk]

A big scary spider

[CHASSYP]

The entrance to the hole in the ground was funneled by the web of grasses. They seemed to be woven together very expertly. The weaving of the funnel was proberly about 2 inch in depth before becoming in contact with the ground which seemed to be very deep, but I couldnt see exactly, because of the light.
The surrounding are was olive trees, with the web being on the side of the path on an unmade road through. Thanks.

[wildherbalian85]

A Trap door spider...

http://australianmuseum.net.au/Uploa...ife_16_big.jpg

There are reports of twig lining by some species of trapdoor, most are from southeast asia and australia but some have been reported in europe.

http://www.european-arachnology.org/...-608_Haupt.pdf

But i'm still sticking to it having been made in the past by some small rodent and it has now been accupied by a spider.

[The Woodman]

I saw a very similar thing in southern Spain a couple of years ago although the entrance had an element of spiders webbing with the vegetation. I drew the spider out using a very long piece of grass and dibbling the end of the grass near the entrance to the tube. A large spider quickly came out to investigate and then shot back in, never to be seen again. I did this with several tubes and have some images somewhere.

I'm fairly confident the species was Lycosa tarantula.

I saw several of these tunnels in the bottom of a hedge bank on the side of a track.

However, I'm not convinced CHASSYP's tube is exactly the same as what I saw but it is similar.

[No.9 Spider]

It's certainly a possibility that it could be a burrow for one of the larger Lycosidae species - Wolf spider, though there are a few other species that are possibles, though I'd have expected more evidence of web around the burrow.


No.9 Spider

[wildherbalian85]

Originally Posted by The Woodman

I saw a very similar thing in southern Spain a couple of years ago although the entrance had an element of spiders webbing with the vegetation. I drew the spider out using a very long piece of grass and dibbling the end of the grass near the entrance to the tube. A large spider quickly came out to investigate and then shot back in, never to be seen again. I did this with several tubes and have some images somewhere.

I'm fairly confident the species was Lycosa tarantula.

I saw several of these tunnels in the bottom of a hedge bank on the side of a track.

However, I'm not convinced CHASSYP's tube is exactly the same as what I saw but it is similar.

I agree its deffinitaly a tarantula burrow.

Look at this desert tarrantula burrow from arizona....

Caliso Learning, Palm Desert, CA

I'd say almost identical

[No.9 Spider]

A Mygalomorph (tarantula) has to be a favourite for this type of burrow considering the size.
Interestingly, Lycosa tarantula isn't actually a tarantula (it's from the sub-order Labidognatha), though it wrongly gave it's name to them many years ago.



No.9 Spider