Minnesota Seasons - wolf spiders (Family Lycosidae)

Overview • Description • Distribution • Taxonomy

Overview

Wolf spiders (Family Lycosidae) have a worldwide distribution, occurring on every continent except Antarctica. They are found in almost all habitats, including forests floors, prairies and meadows, marshes, and buildings. They have excellent vision and are solitary hunters. They do not spin a web but some species construct a silken tube to hide in. Most live on the ground and hunt at night.

There are about 2,888 species in 124 currently recognized genera of wolf spiders worldwide, about 240 species in 21 genera North America north of Mexico, and at least 37 species in Minnesota.

Photo by Babette Kis

Description

Wolf spider (Family Lycosidae) is a medium-sized to large spider. It is brown with light and dark stripes or spots that camouflages it in leaf litter. It is covered with short hairs. Like other spiders it has eight eyes in two rows. In the second row the lateral eyes are large, the middle eyes are very large.


Distribution
		Sources 24, 29, 30, 82.
5/18/2024

Occurrence
Common


Taxonomy
Class	Arachnida (arachnids)
Order	Araneae (spiders)
Suborder	Araneomorphae (typical spiders)
Infraorder	Entelegynae (entelegyne spiders)
Zoosection	RTA clade
Zoosubsection	Oval calamistrum clade
Superfamily	Lycosoidea (wolf spiders and allies)

Subordinate Taxa
Alopecosa spp. Arctosa spp. (bear spiders) Geolycosa spp. (burrowing wolf spiders) Gladicosa spp. (sword wolf spiders) Hogna spp. Pardosa spp. (thin-legged wolf spiders) Pirata spp. (pirate wolf spiders) Piratula spp. Rabidosa spp. Schizocosa spp. (brush-leggeed spiders) Tigrosa spp. Trochosa spp.

Synonyms


Common Names
wolf spiders


Visitor Photos

Share your photo of this arachnid.
		This button not working for you? Simply email us at info@MinnesotaSeasons.com. Attach one or more photos and, if you like, a caption.


Leslie K.

day 3 with our guest


Clara Wolfe

Found in a raised garden bed with newly placed woodchips


Heidi P.


Alfredo Colon


Babette Kis
Lycosidae spp. wolf spiders Lycosidae sp., wolf spider, about 10mm long, found on Barnes Prairie, Racine Co., WI. Photos were taken on May 22, 2021.


Luciearl


MinnesotaSeasons.com Photos

Camera

Slideshows

slideshow


Visitor Videos

Share your video of this arachnid.
		This button not working for you? Simply email us at info@MinnesotaSeasons.com. Attach a video, a YouTube link, or a cloud storage link.


Other Videos

Closer to the nature 6: Wolf spiders (Lycosidae)
WildInside

About

Dec 3, 2017

Wolf spiders are quite common world-wide. They are good runners and they hunt actively, so they are well prepared for that kind of hunting. The female of wolf spider is also a good mother, which creates egg sack and carries it with her all the time. The young spiders are safe inside of it, but when they leave the egg sack, they are still protected by their mother.

Contact: wildinsideyt@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WildInside-235784083542985/

Music:
QUEEN OF THE SKIES by Nicolai Heidlas Music https://soundcloud.com/nicolai-heidlas
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
Music provided by Audio Library https://youtu.be/1StjgRTfJg4

Morning Sun by Nicolai Heidlas Music https://soundcloud.com/nicolai-heidlas Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/UzCFTyluxic

Wolf Spider (Lycosidae) Female with Young
Carl Barrentine

About

Jun 12, 2010

This was one of seven females, each one with either eggs or young, that I observed (within a one meter area!) on the wet plywood deck of a small artifical pond. Photographed at Turtle River State Park, North Dakota (11 June 2010).

Camcorder


Visitor Sightings

Report a sighting of this arachnid.
		This button not working for you? Simply email us at info@MinnesotaSeasons.com. Be sure to include a location.