What are a wolf spider's inherited traits?

Answer 1

Wolf Spiders inherit all sorts of traits that are the same as those of most or all other spiders. For instance, they have eight legs.

Wolf spiders inherit some special characteristics that, together, mark them as wolf spiders: Almost none of them make webs. Four of their eight eyes are small, two are medium, and two are large. Their vision is better that most other spiders. They rove around until they encounter a cricket or some other prey item, and then they run over, grab it, and give it a venomous bite. They are not able to climb up glass and other very smooth surfaces. They carry their eggs wrapped up in a spherical silken sac that they hang from their spinnerets. After the eggs hatch the spiderlings climb up onto the mother's back. On her back are special body parts that stick out for the baby spiders to hang on to. The mother wolf spiders are very protective of their egg sacs and of their baby spiders.

These spiders are not very easily spooked. They may stay where they are until a human or other large creature gets pretty close. However, once somebody gets too close these spiders will run away. They can move very fast. Like most other spiders, if you grab one, roll over on it in bed, put your foot into a shoe where it is hiding, it will most likely give you a defensive bite. Many wolf spiders are large, sometimes they have body lengths of around one inch. So if one of these spiders wants to tell you, "Let go!" it will give you a very convincing reason to do so.

Wolf spiders almost always have good camouflage for whatever is their preferred terrain. They never have bright colors, although some of them are almost white.

These spiders tend to eat the kinds of insects that are agricultural problems for humans--things like crickets, grasshoppers, etc. They almost never eat bees or other beneficial insects.