Hogna carolinensis

Carolina wolf spiders are found throughout a large part of North America.[7][6] This includes, but is not limited to, South Carolina,[8] Kansas,[2] all Great Lake States,[9] and the American Southwest.[10][5][11][3][6] Most research on Carolina wolf spiders, though they are present in many ecosystems, has been conducted on the desert-dwelling ones.

The Carolina wolf spider is found all over the North American continent. Therefore, they are able to inhabit many types of geography and topology. Research suggests that these spiders prefer flatter and more open areas.[6] In fact, researchers noticed that the home range of spiders (distance they frequent from their burrow) would be cut off by sharp topographical changes in desert areas.[6]

Carolina wolf spiders usually feed on insects and other small invertebrates.[3][8] They typically eat grasshoppers and crickets, among other arthropods.[1] Carolina wolf spiders will sometimes inhabit the areas around human homes, and will take advantage of available prey like cockroaches and other pests.[12] Additionally, they have been observed with juvenile Texas Banded Geckos as prey, implying they are also able to catch and consume small vertebrate species.[3][8]

Carolina wolf spiders do not catch their prey within webs. They sit on the edge of their burrow or in some other good ambush location, and attack their prey when it gets near.[3] If the spider is not in its burrow when it catches its prey, it will feed on its prey before returning to the burrow.[3] If a Carolina wolf spider is in its burrow when it catches its prey, it will drag it down into the depth, holding on to the prey with its chelicerae (the “jaws”).[3]

Female holding the egg sac.

Carolina wolf spiders mate in late summer. The females carry the eggs, the sacs attached to their abdomen, during the approximately two week incubation period.[6] There tends to be two main egg carrying seasons, the first in late July and the second in late August.[10] While incubating the eggs, female spiders are often seen “sunning” the egg sacs. This is observed when the spider is sitting near the top of their burrow with their heads down and their abdomen and egg sac, sticking up. The Carolina wolf spider is nocturnal, therefore this behavior is observed during night hours. Researchers do not know why this behavior occurs, but they believe the warmth helps the eggs to hatch more quickly.[6] When the eggs hatch, there are about 200 spiderlings per sac.[5]

Spiderlings are born near the end of summer and, barring exceptional circumstances like flooding, stay with their mother for the first 6 days of their life. During that time they learn different cues and behaviors from their mother and subsist on the remains of the yolk from where they emerged.[5] The spiders then disperse and find their own burrows or places to live.[10] As immature spiders, the spiderlings go through multiple instars (growing stages) until they reach breeding age at about three years. During their third summer, the spiders will reproduce for the first time. Males die that same summer, but female spiders can live for multiple breeding seasons. As a result, adult male percentage peaks in June and adult female percentage peaks in July. During the year, Carolina wolf spiders are active from March to October, and they hibernate from November through February.[6]

During courtship, a male will approach a female and make the first move: the male will enter into a courtship posture by extending his forelegs. The male will then extend his palps and vibrate his abdomen, repeating this a few times.[4] Then, depending on the movement of the female, the male will approach. If the female is moving around quickly, the male will too. The male will also mimic her movement speed if she is moving slowly.[4] Once the male is close enough to the female, he will carefully prod her with his forelegs. The female will react in one of two ways: she will either fight or not. If the female fights the male and does not kill him, he will keep pursuing her. If she fights and then pursues after the male, he will flee and try to escape her attack. If she does not fight at all and instead flees, the male will follow her in order to continue the courtship.[4] If no female is present, male/male courting can occur.[4]

If the female is amenable to mating, she will face the male and elevate the front legs on one side of her body, waiting for the male to copulate.[3] The male will then insert his palps several times into the female. After copulation, the male will quickly run away so he is not attacked and eaten by the female.[3] It has been observed in a lab setting that a female will court with a male if she has already copulated with a different male, but she will not pursue a second mating.[4]

As these spiders are mostly solitary, there is not much interaction between females. When female Carolina wolf spiders do interact, their behavior can range from merely making foreleg contact to cannibalism. Typically, they will make threatening motions like extending their forelegs, spreading their chelicerae, or drumming their palpi at each other.[3]

There is not a significant difference of the sprint speed, (i.e. the speed at which they will escape perceived threats) of the Carolina wolf spider between males and females.[11] There is, however, a difference in chances a males or a females will flee from a threat. Spiders will flee to try and get far enough from a predator in hopes that they will lose interest in them. Male Carolina wolf spiders flee significantly more than females. Researchers believe that this is due to Carolina wolf spider burrowing habits. Male spiders do not own burrows as often as females, so they are not able to find a safe escape in their burrows as frequently as their female counterparts. Interestingly, the speed of the spider and flee distance are positively correlated, meaning that the spiders that flee farther are able to run away faster, both mechanisms helping their antipredatory reactions.[11]

In addition to sight and olfactory senses, Carolina wolf spiders will react to vibrations they sense. They will either return to their burrow, if available, or they will flee.[3]

Carolina wolf spiders are able to thermoregulate very well, which is especially important for those that inhabit desert ecosystems or other locations with large temperature swings. They are able to acclimate to any sized (within reason) temperature change in 1.5–3 days.[7] They do this by increasing their oxygen consumption levels to very high amounts and then lowering it to the appropriate level for that temperature.[7] This adaptation is helpful because it reduces the shifts in food and water needs that in other spiders is associated with large temperature shifts.[7] In the short term, before they have thermoregulated, Carolina wolf spiders are able to keep cool by keeping their abdomens close to water and drinking large amounts of water.[7] These water sources are especially important because Carolina wolf spiders need outside sources of water as they are not able to derive water metabolically.[7]