Prowlin & Crawlin, Spotted Wolf Spider (Pardosa amentata).

Photographed on the Monday 15 July 2013.
This is an image of a female Spotted Wolf Spider (Pardosa amentata) and belongs to the Class Arachnida, Order Araneae, Infraorder Araneomorphae (true spiders), Family Lycosidae and Genus Pardosa.
This spider belongs to the family Lycosidae from the Greek for ‘Wolf’ and often seen in some numbers at times in dense vegetation and it was thought that they hunted in packs, like wolves. However, they can be gregarious, so appearing together in numbers, but are actually nomads that hunt alone. They do not spin webs but actively hunt using its excellent eyesight, commonly on the ground and amongst dense vegetation. They prey on small insects such as flies and occur in a wide diversity of habitats. The genus Pardosa is the most common and abundant of the wolf spiders and Pardosa amentata is the commonest of this genus. The male of the species is often darker and as in all spiders the male has elaborately differentiated palps which it uses to store sperm and from which it inseminates the female. Wolf spiders have very good eyesight like the Saltacids (jumping spiders) and these species (with good eyesight) often have elaborate courtship rituals and displays. It is often the males that are seen in early spring as they mature before the females and also do not live for long, whilst the females may live well into the summer. Therefore it is important for the male to find a mate as quickly as possible and the female leaves chemical clues for her suitors to follow. After mating the male speedily retreats in case the female is hungry and then has to recharge his palps with sperm, he does this by producing a small receptacle of silk into which he deposits his sperm from the underside of the abdomen. Once this has been done, he dips his palps into this to take up the sperm into the palps. The female carries her eggs in a silk cocoon sack which she attaches

AnimaliaAnimalsArachnidaArachnidsAraneaeArthtorpodaChelicerataFaunaInvertebrateLycosidaeLycosoideaMegafaunaPardosaPardosa amentataSpidersSpotted Wolf SpiderWildlifeWolf Spidercreatureszoology