Have you ever seen a spookier looking insect?! This wolf spider is carrying its recently hatched young on its back! When I first saw this spider on the trail at Indian and Celina Lakes in southern Indiana, I thought I was seeing a spider with a large white abdomen. For me that was cool enough to lean in for a photo. That’s when I realized that I wasn’t looking at a white abdomen; no, I was looking at a mother wolf spider carrying her young on her back! Wolf spiders, which are members of the Lycosidae family of spiders, are the only known spiders to carry their young on their back. From the time that the female lays her more than 100 eggs, until the spiderlings are a few weeks old, the mother will keep the eggs on her back. She is still able to hunt even though she is carrying around 100 baby spiders!

Wolf Spider Behavior

The wolf spider is a solitary, wandering spider. They will run about on the ground looking for their next prey. They hunt in one of two ways: running down their prey or by remaining still and waiting for their prey to come to them. In either situation, they will catch their prey and begin to devour them. They do not form a web, but do have a silk producing organ that they use to surround their eggs. Wolf spiders eat insects and other invertebrates primarily. Large females, which can grow to be up to two inches long are known to eat small vertebrates, such as amphibians and reptiles.