Taxonomy
Lycosidae
EOL Text
Wolf spiders get their name from the way some species chase and capture their prey like a little wolf. Their scientific name comes from the Ancient Greek word "lycosa", which means wolf.
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Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2012, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
Source | http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Lycosidae/ |
Wolf spiders hatch from eggs, and the hatchlings look more or less like grown-up spiders, though sometimes their colors change as they age. In many species, the hatchlings ride on their mother's body for some time before going off on their own.
To grow, spiders have to shed their exoskeleton, which they do many times during their lives. Unlike insects, some spider species keep growing after they become adults, and continue to molt as they get bigger.
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Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2012, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
Source | http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Lycosidae/ |
Male wolf spiders probably don't live more than a year, but females of some species can live for several years.
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Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2012, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
Source | http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Lycosidae/ |
After mating, female wolf spiders lay a batch of eggs (usually several dozen or more), which they wrap in silk. If she gets enough food, a single female may produce several clutches of eggs in a year.
Breeding season: Warm months of the year
Key Reproductive Features: seasonal breeding ; sexual ; fertilization (Internal ); oviparous
Female wolf spiders wrap their eggs in a round ball of silk, and keep them close. Wandering species carry their egg sack under their abdomen as they move around. Tunnel-building species keep their eggsacks in their tunnels, and bring them up to warm in the sun during the day (the warm temperature helps their eggs develop faster).
Parental Investment: female parental care
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Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2012, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
Source | http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Lycosidae/ |
In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Animal / predator / stocks nest with
female of Anoplius concinnus stocks nest with Lycosidae
Animal / predator / stocks nest with
female of Anoplius infuscatus stocks nest with Lycosidae
Animal / predator / stocks nest with
female of Anoplius viaticus stocks nest with Lycosidae
Animal / predator / stocks nest with
female of Arachnospila trivialis stocks nest with Lycosidae
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Rights holder/Author | BioImages, BioImages - the Virtual Fieldguide (UK) |
Source | http://www.bioimages.org.uk/html/Lycosidae.htm |
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) Stats
Specimen Records: 8299
Specimens with Sequences: 6970
Specimens with Barcodes: 6742
Species: 371
Species With Barcodes: 329
Public Records: 1849
Public Species: 159
Public BINs: 137
The spider family Lycosidae (wolf spiders) includes 2396 described species according to Platnick (2013), ranking it among the most species-rich of the 112 spider families recognized by Platnick (only seven spider families include more than 2000 described species). Nearly 250 lycosid species are known from North America north of Mexico (Dondale 2005). Lycosids are among the most common and widespread spiders, ranging from the Arctic to the subtropics. They are found in an extremely wide variety of habitats, including the coastal intertidal zone.
The unusual lycosid eye arrangement makes lycosids generally easy to recognize as such. Typically, there is a row of four small anterior eyes; two large and forward-facing posterior median eyes (PME); and well behind the PME, a pair of large posterior lateral eyes (PLE), which usually face to the side or even backwards. Wolf spiders have excellent vision and because of the arrangement of their eight eyes, they are able to see in all directions. Courtship in lycosids often includes a strong visual component (e.g., waving legs or palps).
Nearly half of the lycosid species found in North America north of Mexico are in the genera Pardosa (which have nearly perpendicular spines on their hind legs) or Pirata (these small spiders usually have a dark tuning fork-shaped mark on the cephalothorax).
Many lycosids are nocturnal or crepuscular (active at dawn or dusk), but others hunt during the day. Most lycosids do not build a capture web (in North America, only Sosippus species build webs) but they do use a dragline, which is laid down as they wander and provides an indirect mode of communication between individuals. Female lycosids exhibit unusual parental care. After constructing an egg sac, the female attaches it to her spinnerets and carries it with her as she hunts (in contrast, females of most species in the closely related family Pisauridae carry their round egg sac under the body, grasping it with their chelicerae and pedipalps). When the young emerge from the egg sac, they clamber onto her body (mainly on the abdomen, but sometimes spilling onto her cephalothorax). The young ride about on their mother for some days as they grow, then disperse.
Wolf spiders are mainly sit-and-wait predators, pouncing on prey that passes too close. Many wolf spiders build burrows, ranging from temporary shallow holes just a few centimeters deep to silk-lined tubes extending well into the ground. The burrows of some species may be marked by turrets of silk and debris or a silk sheet door similar to those of trapdoor spiders.
Dondale (2005) includes key references that provide an excellent entry into the literature on lycosid courtship and mating behavior, life histories, hunting behavior, and taxonomy.
(Dondale 2005 and references therein; Bradley 2013)
- Bradley, R.A. 2013. Common Spiders of North America. University of California Press, Berkeley.
- Dondale, C.D.. 2005. Lycosidae. Pp. 164-170 in D. Ubick, P. Paquin, P.E. Cushing, and V. Roth (eds.) Spiders of North America: an Identification Manual. American Arachnological Society.
- Platnick, N. I. 2013. The world spider catalog, version 14.0. American Museum of Natural History, online at http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/index.html
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Rights holder/Author | Leo Shapiro, Leo Shapiro |
Source | No source database. |
Collection Sites: world map showing specimen collection locations for Lycosidae
Wolf spiders are small, usually brown or brightly colored spiders. They don't make a web, but hunt by running after their prey. Some species dig holes, which they cover with a web and in which they will also spend time. On warm sunny days, one can see a large number of wolf spiders running over the ground. The females carry their eggs in a sack under their hind body.
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Rights holder/Author | Ecomare |
Source | http://www.ecomare.nl/index.php?id=3733&L=2 |