The Hobo Spider
Introduction
Sometimes the hobo spider is called the aggressive house spider. This is misleading because it's a "non-aggressive" spider. The "Hobo" has very poor sight and sees only about one or two meters. It is however very fast and its rapid movements might be interpreted as aggressive.
The Hobo spider is a highly poisonous (venomous) and dangerous spider, but not because it's aggressive. If it runs towards you it probably safest just to step aside. The hobo spiders is originally foreign to the USA, but are believed to have been transported to the country by ship. It's an unpopular spider because it is mistaken for the seemingly more aggressive Brown Recluse Spider. Hobo spiders can be difficult to identify and to make a proper identification require a microscope and a study of its reproductive structures.
Appearance
Tegenaria agrestis are brown and measure around 1 to 2 cm in length. Their legs have short hairs and their abdomens have shaped markings.
Males have two palps looking like gloves, which are not found in females. Females tend to have a larger abdomen than males.
When disturbed by light or movement it normally remains still. If a Hobo senses danger it runs. It can't really see so sometimes it runs towards a person.
Life-Cycle
Details about the life-cycle of the Hobo Spider has not been established. Entomologist from different part of the country has observed differences among populations. In some areas its reported the hobo-spider can complete its life cycle within one year in other areas its longer time. This might be due to the fact that all stages of the hobo spider can be observed at the same time, which might suggest a longer life-time than just one year.
The female hobo spiders lays their egg cases in late September, October and early November. Often it lays up to 4 egg cases each with several layers of silk covered with debris if available to the spider. Each of the sacs can contain more than 100 eggs. After mating the males dies while females begin to construct egg cases so that the species can survive. The females usually die in their web after they've constructed their egg sacs and deposited them in sheltered areas.
Hobo spiders - hunting for prey
Hobo spiders constructs snares, which is horizontal web usually found in a crack between bricks or under stones or vegetation. The spider waits for its prey in the mouth of the funnel. Sometimes prey fall onto the horizontal surface and then the Hobo rushes out and grabs the prey. It takes the prey back into it's funnel where its consumed.
Hobo spider bites
Quite a large percentage of hobo spider bites are so-called dry bites. No venom is injected into the prey during a dry bite and its thought that 50 percent of bites on humans are dry bites. The reason for this may be that most bites from the Hobo are very fast and a defensive response from the spider.
This might happen when the spider gets trapped between skin and something else and needs a fast way of solving the problem. Multiple bites do also occur in situations when the first bite doesn't achieve anything in terms of improving the situation of the spider.
Other sites
These links are good if you want to know more about the hobo-spider or other spiders.
Hobo spiders
Brown recluse spider
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