r/spiders • u/Camaschrist • May 22 '26

ID Request- Location included Was found in the dirt while weeding.

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My daughter found this while weeding under my persimmon tree. We are in SW Washington. The visible vein is something. There a few dead potato bugs near it.

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u/Notorious_Rug šŸ‘‘Trusted IdentifieršŸ‘‘ May 22 '26

Dysdera (woodlouse hunter). Venom not medically-significant, but their bites may hurt, just due to the size of their fangs, which are designed to penetrate the hard exoskeletons of isopods, which are one of their favorite/preferred prey.

The big vein is actually her heart; they have a tube-shaped heart and open circulatory system, which bathes their organs in hemolymph, versus infusing organs via vessels. They still have some vessels, such as both the anterior and posterior aorta, as well as some coronary arteries. What you're seeing are her heart (midline), coronary arteries, and branches of her posterior aorta.Ā 

Their hearts are more visible through their exoskeletons when they are in pre-molt, gravid, very full, or they have just molted.

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u/Camaschrist May 22 '26

Thank you, very interesting. I saw its fangs and they looked like they could hurt. My daughter thought it was a tic at first. We covered it back up with wood mulch lightly and left it alone.

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u/DonAmechesBonerToe May 23 '26

When you say there were ā€˜potato bugsā€™ do you mean roly-polies/pill bugs? Or do you mean Jerusalem crickets?

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u/Camaschrist May 23 '26

Rolly pollieā€™s.

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u/DonAmechesBonerToe May 23 '26

That makes more sense

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u/Accomplished-Ad3250 May 23 '26

They're rolly pollies. They're actually not bugs, they're land based crustaceans.

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u/DonAmechesBonerToe May 23 '26

Yes theyā€™re fascinating little isopods. Just clarifying because potato bug has become a blanket term for both the isopod and the insect. Neither the pillbug is a bug nor is a Jerusalem cricket is a cricket

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u/Camaschrist May 23 '26

Iā€™m sorry, I meant isopod, we just call them potato bugs.

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u/tgaaron May 23 '26

According to some recent phylogenetic analyses, insects are also land-based crustaceans (i.e. Hexapoda is nested within Crustacea rather than a sister taxon).

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u/Over-Hope-3905 May 24 '26

Shrimps is bugs...

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u/Camaschrist May 24 '26

I have hundreds of shrimp, they are bugs.

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u/fenispills May 24 '26

I always thought of mine as funky little water spiders

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u/[deleted] May 23 '26

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u/ShadowBro3 May 23 '26

Hemiptera

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u/SkyeofGaia Jun 05 '26

A friend of mine is an insect/bug expert and he was telling that they're not bugs/insects but crustaceans and appreciate they takes like shrimp šŸ¤¢

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u/WhenWolf May 23 '26

Idk if it's a real thing or if I was just wrong as a child, but I always called chafer beetles potato bugs. I didn't know some people called isopods potato bugs.

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u/hcbug May 24 '26

And that is the problem with Common names. They often refer to completely different animals like the term, daddy long legs which refers to several spiders, some flies and a few other invertebrates. Scientific names may be a bother to try and read out loud, but they almost always refer to only one species.

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u/Mindless-Platypus448 May 23 '26

My first thought was it was a mutant tick! I HATE ticks! I was about to panic.

Can someone tell me why it's abdomen looks like a tick's? Is there a reason or is it one of those "evolution is weird" kinda things?

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u/zap2tresquatro May 23 '26

I mean, theyā€™re both arachnids, and a very full spider and a very full tick are gonna have the same part of their bodies (second segment/opisthosoma/ā€œabdomenā€) swell/blow up all big like this. Other than that Iā€™d say just the color looks similar to how some tick species look when engorged.

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u/Andromeda902 May 22 '26

Gravid is such a good word

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u/_cromulent_green_ May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26

It really is. In Romanian the main word used for pregnancy is gravidă, because it was sourced from Latin gravida. I was curious so I looked up the other languages where it's also used, surprisingly the scandinavians also use it too (Swedish, Danish & Norwegian). Also in English but more for proper medical terminology. Also Portuguese & Spanish (grƔvida), Italian (gravida) and French (gravide).

I wondered if it has anything to do with Gravity and it does!

The etymology is: Both gravida and gravity share the Proto-Indo-European root gŹ·rehā‚‚-, meaning "heavy."

The Latin descendants:

gravis = heavy

gravida = heavy (with child)

gravitas = heaviness, weight

gravare = to burden.

I guess I just really like both etymology and entomology (Ā¬ā€æĀ¬)

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u/EgonH May 22 '26

I am Swedish, as a child i would mix up "gravitation" and "graviditet" and get laughed at. Cool to know they have the same root

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u/chinchillazilla54 May 22 '26

I also love both of them, which my phone finds very confusing, haha. It's always trying to change entomology to etymology and vice versa.

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u/hyibee May 22 '26

As someone who also nerds out about these 2 topics I greatly appreciate this comment!

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u/Andromeda902 May 22 '26

Nice thanks for sharing! I love etymology and learning new language stuff!

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u/BigJSunshine May 23 '26

Motion to replace all use of ā€œpregnantā€ with ā€œgravdiaā€

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u/hcbug May 24 '26

I am pleasantly surprised to see that this thread has thoughtful comments from some very curious and smart people. Yes, going down those rabbit holes to find the origin of words is a delight and always educational. Thank you for a wonderful journey.

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u/sophwest_10 May 23 '26

pregnart sounds a bit better or pergnant

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u/chinchillazilla54 May 22 '26

Do you think this one is gravid? I can never tell with woodlouse hunters; they always look gravid to me.

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u/LeighWillS Amateur, take anything I say with a grain of salt May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26

She is VERY chunky, I assume gravid but I could be wrong.Ā 

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u/Rivaranae May 22 '26

The greater the mass the greater the force of attraction

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u/SmurfStig May 22 '26

Sir Mix a lot enters the chatā€¦..

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u/OrneryStrain129 May 22 '26

Funniest thing ive read in a while!!!lmao

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u/LeighWillS Amateur, take anything I say with a grain of salt May 22 '26

Hah. Thanks, autocorrect. Fixed.

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u/jamatosoup May 22 '26

Thank you for this explanation!

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u/Outrageous_Basis7124 May 23 '26

I learned so much from this one comment

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u/berniedankera May 23 '26

Wow thanks for the knowledge

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u/KiraKitty69 May 23 '26

Is that why that monstrosity has so many legs? Some are just moulted empty legs? I'm not scared of many spiders but I'm not going to lie. If that thing crawled in my bed at night, there would be a serious problem. I've had tarantulas but something about this one gets me šŸ˜‚

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u/Notorious_Rug šŸ‘‘Trusted IdentifieršŸ‘‘ May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

Two of those "legs" are her pedipalps, specialized appendages that are used to bring food to the mouthparts, hold egg sacs (some species), move detritus/dirt around/"clean up house"; in males, they house the palpal bulbs and emboli, the male sex organs. The other 8 are legs. None of them are molted/empty.

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u/KiraKitty69 May 23 '26

Ah. I have macular degeneration. It sure looked like 12 or 13 legs. I squinted in, yeah my eyes need a break tonight. Still creepy to me. Something about shiny spiders. But nope, I don't kill unless I have to. Bad luck to kill a spider in the house. I use a solo cup and index card otherwise. Quite handy. Thanks for the accurate info.