Arctosa

Arctosa cinerea, copyright Fritz Geller-Grimm.

Belongs within: Lycosidae.

Arctosa is a genus of medium-sized to large wolf spiders commonly found in sandy habitats.

Characters (from Dondale & Redner 1983): Size medium to large (overall length, excluding legs, 4.5–16.0 mm). Carapace broad, rather low, approximately uniform in height between dorsal groove and posterior row of eyes, usually glabrous or nearly so, yellow, off-white, or mottled with gray, yellow, or brown. Anterior row of eyes straight or somewhat procurved or recurved, longer than, shorter than, or equal to middle row in length. Promargin of fang furrow with two or three teeth, retromargin with three teeth. Legs usually pale, robust, lightly scopulate, with dark rings ; tibia III with two dorsal macrosetae or with one plus a basal bristle, and with 1–3 retrolateral macrosetae; trochanters usually deeply notched at tip on ventral surface . Abdomen usually pale and mottled like carapace. Terminal apophysis of male palpus conspicuous, in two parts or in one part of two different shapes and degrees of sclerotization; embolus straight or curved, largely hidden by median apophysis in ventral view, with extensive pars pendula extending nearly to tip; median apophysis prominent, sclerotized, elongate, conspicuously grooved or excavated on distal or dorsal surface (and forming part of functional conductor); tegulum with retrolateral prominence bearing small soft area and often bearing small, transparent, cup-shaped process or prominent, sclerotized process, which also forms part of functional conductor. Epigynum of female usually with conspicuous atrium divided by median septum, without hood; copulatory openings located at sides of slender part of median septum; copulatory tubes slender to stout, rather short, often curved or sinuous, sometimes with conspicuous spermathecal organs at lateral margins; spermathecae bulbous in outline, without prominences.

<==Arctosa Koch 1847 MGK03
    |--*A. cinerea (Fabricius 1777) [=Trochosa cinerea] MGK03
    |--A. alpigena RKD02
    |--A. brauni (Strand 1916) [=Tarentula brauni] J98
    |--A. epiana (Berland 1938) [=Lycosa konei var. epiana, A. konei epiana] F06
    |--A. fulvolineata (Lucas 1846) PG08
    |--A. lacustris (Simon 1876) K55
    |--A. leopardus (Sundevall 1833) MGK03
    |--A. nyembeensis (Strand 1916) [=Tarentula nyembeensis] J98
    |--A. perita (Latreille 1799) MGK03
    |--A. stigmosa PY07
    |--A. subamylacea PY07
    `--A. tbilisiensis Mcheidze 1946 MGK03

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

Dondale, C. D., & J. H. Redner. 1983. Revision of the wolf spiders of the genus Arctosa C. L. Koch in North and Central America (Araneae: Lycosidae). Journal of Arachnology 11: 1–30.

[F06] Framenau, V. W. 2006. The wolf spider genus Venatrix Roewer: new species, synonymies and generic transfers (Araneae, Lycosidae). Records of the Western Australian Museum 23 (2): 145–166.

[J98] Jäger, P. 1998. Das Typenmaterial der Spinnentiere (Arachnida: Acari, Amblypygi, Araneae, Opiliones, Pseudoscorpiones, Scorpiones, Uropygi) aus dem Museum Wiesbaden. Jahrbuecher des Nassauischen Vereins fuer Naturkunde 119: 81–91.

[K55] Kraus, O. 1955. Spinnen von Korsika, Sardinien und Elba (Arach., Araneae). Senckenbergiana Biologica 36: 371–394.

[MGK03] Marusik, Yu. M., E. F. Guseinov & S. Koponen. 2003. Spiders (Arachnida: Aranei) of Azerbaijan. 2. Critical survey of wolf spiders (Lycosidae) found in the country with description of three new species and brief review of Palaearctic Evippa Simon, 1885. Arthropoda Selecta 12 (1): 47–65.

[PY07] Park, Y. C., J.-S. Yoo, M. P. Schwarz, N. Murphy & J.-P. Kim. 2007. Molecular phylogeny of east Asian wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae) inferred from mitochondrial 12S ribosomal DNA. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 100 (1): 1–8.

[PG08] Pétillon, J., & A. Garbutt. 2008. Success of managed realignment for the restoration of salt-marsh biodiversity: preliminary results on ground-active spiders. Journal of Arachnology 36 (2): 388–393.

[RKD02] Relys, V., S. Koponen & D. Dapkus. 2002. Annual differences and species turnover in peat bog spider communities. Journal of Arachnology 30 (2): 416–424.