CLOSED: Please ID this spider

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Litheon Katanning, Australia Aug 01, 2012

Hi,

My 10 month old daughter was bitten with this spider on the Sunday. I live in Western Australia, so any spider bite is a guaranteed trip to the hospital. We captured the spider and took it with us to the hospital. The spider is about the size of an adult's fingernail. You could see 2 little bloodmarks on her finger after the bite so it did puncture her skin, and her finger started swelling up. After about an hour it went down again. We were told by the nurse on duty that this spider was not dangerous at all, since it was not on her list of dangerous spiders. However, she could not identify it.

Can anyone help?

The first photo is the top view of the spider, and the second is of the bottom view of the spider.

This message was edited Aug 1, 2012 7:43 PM

Thumbnail by Litheon Thumbnail by Litheon
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spoonlegs Cottage Grove, OR(Zone 8a) Aug 01, 2012

I am an amateur, but it looks to me like it's in the Wolf Spider family (Lycosidae). If so, their bites are not considered dangerous. Looks a lot like pictures of Lycosa musgravei, Lycosa godeffroyii, or Venator immansueta (looks closest to me) on this page: http://ednieuw.home.xs4all.nl/australian/Lycosidae/Lycosidae.html
Or possibly a Dolomedes water spider (bites also not considered dangerous) in the Pisauridae (Nursery Web Spider) family: http://ednieuw.home.xs4all.nl/australian/Pisauridae/Pisauridae.html

Post #9226690
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Flapdoodle Minot, ND Aug 02, 2012

Of the three lycosids mentioned above, Venator immansueta does indeed seem the most likely - http://www.flickr.com/photos/australianspiders/4174394192/

Post #9226775
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