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Sticker of Western variable wolf spider
Bug card No. 4704 of 4,939

Western variable wolf spider

Venator immansuetus
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersGardens and meadows8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The western variable wolf spider is a wolf spider that lives only in Australia. Wolf spiders do not sit in webs. They run about on the ground and hunt, a bit like little wolves.

Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
Only the south-west of Western Australia
Top speed
about 2 km/h (1.2 mph)
On foot, estimate
What does it eat?
It hunts insects and other small creatures, chasing or pouncing on them instead of using a web.
For real!Photo of Western variable wolf spider
Picture by Donald Hobern from Copenhagen, Denmark. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its first name was Lycosa immansueta, given by Eugène Simon in 1909.

2

In 2015 a scientist moved it into a group called Venator, which is Latin for hunter.

3

Wolf spider mothers carry their babies around on their backs.

you asked

Most asked questions about Western variable wolf spider

?Where does the western variable wolf spider live?

Only in the south-west corner of Western Australia.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Venator immansuetus
Named by
Simon, 1909
Group
Spiders
Family
Lycosidae
Classification
Arachnida > Araneae > Lycosidae
Lives on
Australia and Oceania

Where the facts come from

  1. Venator immansuetus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Donald Hobern from Copenhagen, Denmark. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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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