Book Review: Wolf Spiders by Joanne Randolph, in Nightmare Creatures: Spiders! Series Title #6

Any spider equals all spiders in fulfilling ecological niches as:

• beneficial predators whose crepuscular and nocturnal forages control population levels of garden and household insect pests;
• keystone species whose environmental obligations ensure bio-geographical harmony; and
• nutritious prey whose crunchy exo-skeletons and softer interiors appeal to arthropods (praying mantises, spider wasps, spiders), birds, reptiles, and rodents. 

Scientists find wolf spiders arthropods of interest for:

• diving;
• spinning webbed homes, not traps, on water surfaces; and
• swimming.

Wolf spiders also get noticed for:

• clutches of 100 to 300 eggs in silken balls of 24 each under maternal abdomens;
• hatchlings piggy-backing mothers two weeks; and
• female two-year and male one-year life expectancies.

They have reputations for: 

• painfully venomous bites; and 
• strangle-holds. 

Despite assertive behaviors and scary appearances, the wolf spider is less threatening to most people than the arachnid is to many animals. People generally judge wolf spiders as harmless in animal and human interactions. They know that a wolf spider's bite is painfully harmless to humans unless the patient numbers among the few whose allergic reaction is rare but serious.

People still learn to leave them alone since even the largest -- South Carolina's state spider, the giant wolf spider, with 1-inch (2.5-centimeter) bodies and 4-inch (10-centimeter) leg-spans -- has super-fast reflexes. Swift actions and reactions indeed make the wolf spider's most unusual representative -- Hawaii's eyeless Kaua'i cave wolf spider -- daunting to cross and elude.

The PowerKids Press-released Wolf Spiders numbers as title #6 in The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. of New York's Nightmare Creatures: Spiders! series. The info-science publication offers readers aged 8 to 12 years in grades third to seventh grade culturally enriching and educationally entertaining insights into wolf spider bio-geographies through 24 pages divided into: 

• Ten chapters; 
• index; and
• glossary. 

It provides memorable illustrative and textual information thanks to timely release in 2014 and timeless relevance through: 

• book designer Andrew Povolny; 
• editors Norman D. Graubart and Jennifer Way; 
• photo researcher Katie Stryker; 
• photographers Evgeniy Ayupov, Adrian Chinery, Gregory G Dinijian, Mr. Green, Damian Herde, Cathy Keifer, Henrik Larsson, Dr. Mosley Reed, and Millard H. Sharp; and 
• writer Joanne Randolph. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

General distribution of Wolf Spiders
drawn after World Spider Catalog 7.0, maintained until 2014 by Norman Ira Platnick (December 30, 1951-April 8, 2020): Sarefo, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Distribution.theraphosidae.1.png

100 baby spiders on her back: Female Wolf Spiders transport their hatchlings on their backs.
Grande Baie, Riviere du Rempart, northeastern Mauritius: Evan Bench (austinevan), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/austinevan/2377059299/

Kauai Cave Wolf Spider, an eyeless spider native to Kauai, is known to locals as pe'e pe'e maka 'ole.
Kauai Cave Wolf Spider is found only in the lava tubes and cave-bearing rock in Kauai's Koloa Basin. The known population of perhaps fewer than 30 individuals regularly dwells in a single cave.
Kaua‘i cave wolf spider (Adelocosa anops): Gordon Smith, USFWS, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adelocosa_anops.jpg

Considered to be North America's largest wolf spider, Carolina Wolf Spider also is recognized as state spider of U.S. state of South Carolina.
Female Carolina Wolf Spiders may attain a body length ranging from 0.87 inches (22 mm) to 1.4 inches (35 mm).
Carolina Wolf Spider (Hogna carolinsis) with fuzzy mouse: John (snakecollector), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/8373783@N07/4688959049/

Wolf Spider, as seen within a home in Maricopa City, Pinal County, Arizona, measures roughly 1 inch (25 mm) while legs were retracted.
image obtained with Fuji S2000HD with super-macro setting under standard room lighting; Saturday, July 17, 2010, at 13:34: AlexanderESmith, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wolfspider-20100717.jpg

Kauai cave wolf spider (Adelocosa anops) was discovered in southeastern Kauai's Koloa District by entomologist Francis G. Howarth of Honolulu's Bishop Museum in 1971.
Arachnologist Willis John Gertsch (October 4, 1906 – December 12, 1998) of the Bishop Museum formally described the uniquely eyeless wolf spider in 1973.
Kauai cave wolf spider with spiderlings on back and abandoned egg case: Gordon Smith/USFWS, Public Domain, via USFWS National Digital Library @ https://digitalmedia.fws.gov/digital/collection/natdiglib/id/23451/

Randolph, Joanne. 2014. Wolf Spiders. PowerKids Press: Nightmare Creatures: Spiders! Series Title #6. New York, NY: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.