Alopecosa

Alopecosa is a spider genus in the family Lycosidae (wolf spiders), with about 150 species and several subspecies.

Alopecosa
female A. fabrilis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Arachnida
Order:
Araneae
Family:
Lycosidae
Genus:
Alopecosa

Simon, 1885
Species

A. accentuata
A. aculeata
A. albostriata
A. auripilosa
A. cinnameopilosa
A. cuneata
A. cursor
A. curtohirta
A. fabrilis
A. hamata
A. hingganica
A. hokkaidensis
A. huabanna
A. inquilina
A. kochi
A. licenti
A. moriutii
A. ovalis
A. pictilis
A. pulverulenta
A. schmidti
A. sibirica
A. striatipes
A. thaleri
A. trabalis
A. xilinensis
 many more

Diversity
142 species

Most species grow up to 2 cm. Alopecosa females make a burrow in which they deposit their egg sac. The female then stays in the burrow guarding the sac until the eggs hatch.

In Germany, there are about 15 described species. There is at least one in the United States.

They favor dry climates.

The species in this genus have been traditionally grouped into sibling species complexes (groups) based on morphological characters, but, as morphology-based taxonomy can be unreliable, alternative methods have also been employed to identify species correctly. For example, differences in observed courtship and copulation behaviour have proved to be a useful tool for species identification and delimitation, particularly in cryptic species.[1] Molecular techniques have also been applied to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships between some species.[1]

References
  1. Just, Pavel; Opatova, Vera; Dolejš, Petr (2018). "Does reproductive behaviour reflect phylogenetic relationships? An example from Central European Alopecosa wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 185: 1039–1056. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zly060.
  • Platnick, Norman I. (2008): The world spider catalog, version 8.5. American Museum of Natural History.
  • Picture of A. accentuata
  • Chen, Jun; Song, Da-Xiang & Gao, Jiu-Chun (2000): Two new species of the genus Alopecosa Simon (Araneae: Lycosidae) from Inner Mongolia, China. Zoological Studies 39(2): 133-137. PDF


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.