![]() Unlike the nomad existence of most of their relatives, burrowing spiders dig vertical holes in the ground that they line with silk, to keep the soil in place. Sure enough, the occupant rushed out, launching both of us backward on the ground. Being a student of spiders at the time, I and a friend had heard of them and hoped to see one by enticing the critter out of its burrow, using a piece of pine straw. doi: 10.1126/ first encountered these interesting spiders while in college in north Mississippi, coming across a group of their holes on open ground in a forest. Maternal behavior in wolf spiders: the role of abdominal hairs. ![]() Publication-Agriculture Canada (English 1856). Araneae: Lycosidae, Pisauridae, and Oxyopidae. The wolf spiders, nurseryweb spiders, and lynx spiders of Canada and Alaska. Journal of Arachnology, 11: 1 –30.ĭondale, C. ![]() Revision of the wolf spiders of the genus Arctosa CL Koch in North and Central America (Araneae: Lycosidae). Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, 160: 12–37. ![]() NOTES ON THE HABITS AND PREY OF TWENTY SPECIES OF BRITISH HUNTING WASPS. Several other genera were subsequently named to rhyme with Lycosa, with the names based on other carnivorous animals: Alopecosa (fox), Crocodilosa, Dingosa, Hyaenosa, Lynxosa, Mustelicosa (weasel), and Pardosa(leopard).īristowe, W. The type genus is Lycosa, which of course means ‘wolf’. I will now always think of it as the mysterious burrow-dwelling tiny sandy mountain bear-spider! Catchy, right? The genus name Arctosa is based on the Greek word for bear, ἄρκτος (arctos). The species name ‘ perita‘ means ‘mountain dweller’ in Greek which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense unless you consider the sand dunes that are apparently the preferred habitat of this species to be very small mountains. This spider (and other lycosids) can detect polarized light, and this species is somewhat famous for being able to navigate using the sun or the moon (references in Dondale & Redner 1983).Īrctosa perita doesn’t seem to have a well established common name, but I found it referred to as the ‘sand bear-spider’ by Steven Falk on Flickr (check out his lovely photo set), which I quite like. The burrow entrance can be cinched up and made effectively invisible to humans, but this does not prevent some predators from detecting the spiders inside. In Britain, Arctosa perita is the preferred prey of the spider wasp Pompilus plumbeus, which uses a combination of smell and touch to locate the spiders within their burrows ( Bristowe 1948). The similarly coloured beach wolf spider Arctosa littoralis (beautifully photographed by Ted MacRae here) is native to North America. This species is typically found on sand dunes or sandy heathland, and only the females construct silk-lined burrows ( Dondale & Redner 1990). It is introduced to North America, and is apparently only present in certain areas of southern British Columbia. After some more serious disturbance resulting in the opening of the burrow now looking a lot more like the (also disturbed) entrance of the original mystery burrow, the spider was persuaded to come out entirely.Īfter a successful evening of sleuthing, we went home and identified our cryptic burrow-dwelling spider as Arctosa perita.
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