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Anonymous
Found this beasty while hunting on the Oregon coast about 2 hours from Eugene. Pretty sure its a Californian Trapdoor spider but they are said to only be in southern cali... What yall think?
>> Anonymous
There are various trapdoor subfamilies throughout the west coast. It looks like a Bothriocyrtum sp., but could be an Ummidia sp. I'm not finding much about their ranges online other than generalized crap.

What are you going to do with it?
>> Anonymous
>>344458
Let it go next time I'm up where I found it most likely. Took it home to figure out what it is.
>> Anonymous
Bothriocyrtum would make me think my first assumption is right. The Ummidia doesn't match up nearly as much.

By sp I'm assuming you mean subspecies... Are you saying its a half breed of the two?
>> Anonymous
When I was younger my brother and I found a california trapdoor in our grandmother's backyard. Hillsboro OR here. Grandma still has what was left of the web. We went to some place and had it ID'd, so it's possible.
>> Anonymous
>>344460

It's not a huge risk, but if you brought something home, you have a chance of passing on pathogens that may have been picked up by the spider in its time there, which it could transfer to others in the wild if you release it.

Don't know about Oregon, but it's illegal to release captured animals back into the wild because of the pathogen issue in Arizona. It's probably not a big deal for a short term captive though, and it's probably legal, but I just wanted you to know. I see a lot of irresponsible hobbyists start their own crappy "catch and release" programs that don't help with conservation.

>>344462

sp. is just species. It's used for unidentified animals or just a general description of a genus of spiders.

You don't come across a lot of valid subspecies in arachnid classification. Most genera are pretty shittily described as it is without subspecies messing it up further. If you think something's a subspecies, it's most likely just a color form.

How'd you find it, if you don't mind? I've spent ridiculous amounts of time in California with no success in seeing any trapdoors.
>> Anonymous
>>344488
It was about a half an hour drive from my home so pathogens shouldn't be a huge problem. I'm pretty sure Or doesn't care about catch and release... I know a lot of people who take in injured animals to take care of, owls and such, and release them once their well. Hell Or cant take fruit into cali but cali can bring fruit into Or, sigh.

Anyway, my father and I were up in the woods near our house. Oregon coast 2 miles from Eugene. Bow hunting during its first season here when its hot as hell. During the noon hours animals aren't moving and its to hot to move yourself so we figured we would shoot our bows for some practice. Cleared some brush for clear shots into a dirt bank, looked down and there he (pretty sure its a male) was. We being pretty avid outdoors men had no idea of what type of spider it was aside from thinking it was a trapdoor spider and figured we would take it home for identification purposes. I emailed this picture and a bit more info than I'm giving here to ODFW to see whats up. If they reply before this thread 404s I'll post their response here.
>> Anonymous
ODFW replied to me and id copy paste what they sent me here if the thread hadn't 404ed.

Thank you for your concern in this matter. The spider you found is not a California trapdoor spider, which as you noted, is not found in this area (the climate and habitat are wrong). It is a harmless, albeit fearsome looking, native spider, the foldingdoor trapdoor spider, Antrodiaetus pacificus. The habitat and locality where you found it are absolutely typical for this species. The time of year is also right because the males (which this probably is) wander following the onset of the rainy season. Sometimes females can be found on the surface of the soil repairing their burrow entrances. These spiders live in burrows that are closed with a door or hatch that folds down the middle (hence the name "folding door trapdoor spider"). When an insect or other prey crawls over or near the door, the spiders pop out of the burrow, folding the half-door back as they emerge, and grab their prey and take it back into the burrow. These spiders can be very numerous and prefer banks or road cuts, probably because their burrows are less prone to flooding in those situations. Going out at night with a flashlight, you can often see their eyes gleaming as they rest at the entrance to their burrows.

Although it would be painful and probably pretty upsetting to be bitten by these spiders, their bite is not known to be poisonous. These spiders can be found throughout forested areas in Oregon and also can sometimes be found in gardens, so no need to worry about releasing the spider where it doesn't belong. The only spider known to be poisonous in Oregon is the black widow, which of course looks very different from trapdoor spiders. Hobo spiders have been thought to be poisonous, but review of the available information finds no support for that being the case. Brown recluse spiders, reported to be present by the news media and physicians, are not found anywhere near Oregon.