Anahita fauna is a small East Asian wandering spider, about 3/8 in (1 cm) long, that hunts on the ground instead of building a web. It lives in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, and the Russian Far East, and isn't found in the US.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Yellowish brown with two dark brown stripes down the back. Females are about 3/8 in (10 mm) long, and males are a little smaller.
Look-alikes
Check the eyes. In this spider, the eight eyes look like three rows of 2, 4, and 2. Wolf spiders have a bottom row of four small eyes, then two very large eyes, then two more on top. You need a close-up photo to see this. Egg-guarding females are easier: a wolf spider carries her egg sac on the tip of her abdomen, while this spider attaches hers to a leaf or grass.
Why they get mixed upSimilar shape, coloring, and ground-running habits.
Where it lives
- Range
- Russian Far East, Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan. It doesn't occur in the US.
- Preferred conditions
- In Japan it turns up in parks, around farm fields, in grassland, along riverbanks, and in woods, from lowlands to mountains.
Behavior
- Activity
- It roams the ground and leaf litter to hunt instead of spinning a web.
More species to explore
Record what you meet and build your own collection
Your photos are kept with their date and place, and you can fill regional albums one species at a time.