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Last night I came across this spider outside my house (costal Southern California). It was bigger than any I'd seen before, about 2.5 or maybe 3 inch legspan, maybe just under an inch for the body length. It is a brown-gray color, the cephalothorax has two dark brown stripes, and some mean looking fangs. Can anyone identify it?

Head on view back view back view with flash

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Looking at this reference "Frequently synanthropic spiders of Southern California", I would have to say that it is possibly a grass spider. (Please someone correct me if I am wrong).

Beautiful looking specimen!

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  • $\begingroup$ Ah, it does look like a grass spider. Or possibly a wolf spider? Any chance of narrowing male/female or which particular species? $\endgroup$
    – A L
    Jul 7, 2013 at 18:39
  • $\begingroup$ I've found some species of wolf spiders and grass spiders to look and behave almost identically, though typically wolf spiders are larger. $\endgroup$
    – dgo
    May 16, 2015 at 3:19
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Yes, it's definitely an adult male Agelenid - one of the funnelweavers. More specifically, one of the outdoor species known collectively as Grass Spiders. The nice long exhaust-pipe spinnerets at the back tell you that, and the racing-stripe pattern on the body. The big boxing-glove palps hanging in front of the face tell you it's an adult male, which is why it was wandering around looking for love. I'm not familiar with the California species, but this is probably one of the western Agelenopsis species. https://bugguide.net/node/view/2001 enter image description here

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