You just never know what you'll find, wherever you are. Which is why I started an alternate iNaturalist account (sherylsr_edu). Good thing I did. One evening, I spotted a large wolf spider in the corner of the door frame at the High Frontier guest house where we were staying. I took some photos and then escorted him outside. On iNat, I identified him as Hogna sp. Later Russell Pfau with the Department of Biological Sciences at Tarleton State University came along and noted that my wolf was like an undescribed species that's being called "Big-eyed Hogna" for now. Then he added my photos to their iNat project called Big-eyed Wolf Spider. Awesome! But I wish I'd gotten pictures of my spider's eyes and face. As an aside, Russell and Texas Master Naturalist Eric Neubauer are getting close to publishing an official description of Hogna incognita, which I wrote about for Texas Co-op Power magazine in November 2024.
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