Desertas wolf spider
The Desertas wolf spider is one of the biggest wolf spiders on Earth. It is grey and black with white spots on its legs. It lives in just one rocky valley on one small island near Madeira, and nowhere else in the world.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
A female's legs spread out measure about 12 centimetres.
Fewer than 5000 grown-ups are left, so it is one of the rarest wolf spiders.
Goats and rabbits that people brought to the island have damaged the plants, and a foreign grass is spreading over its home.
In 2016 Bristol Zoo started breeding them, and in 2017 more than 1000 spiderlings hatched there.
It hides under rocks and in cracks in the volcanic ground.
Most asked questions about Desertas wolf spider
?How big is the Desertas wolf spider?
With its legs spread out, a female measures about 12 centimetres.
?Why is the Desertas wolf spider endangered?
It lives in only one valley, and its home is being damaged by goats, rabbits and a spreading grass.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Hogna ingens
- Named by
- Blackwall, 1857
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Lycosidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Lycosidae
- Lives on
- Europe
- Also known as
- Deserta Grande wolf spider, Desertas giant wolf spider
Where the facts come from
- Hogna ingens (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Pedro Cardoso. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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