Psyche 



[April 



the mouth of the burrow, sometimes only a narrow ring of dead 

 grass, but often rising an inch or more above the surface of the 

 ground and covered with straw, chips or any fine, loose material 

 within reach. When watching, the spider sits in the top of the 

 turret. Fig. 3, L. missouriensis also habitually makes a turret, 

 low or high, according to the material and surroundings. Fig 4. 

 L. pikei makes no turret except a slight ring w^here there is much 

 loose material blowing near the hole. Fig. 2. In open sand it 



Fig. 4. Mouth of burrow of Lycosa missouriensis surrounded by grass and 

 leaves of bearberry, Buffington, Indiana. 



sometimes makes a flat collar of silk over the surface an inch wide 

 around the hole. L. wrightii also prefers to dig in open sand and 

 makes no turret or only a rudiment of one. 



L. nidifex matures in May, the other species in August and Sep- 

 tember. The males all die before winter. Both sexes of all the 

 species pass the winter half grown. In nidifex they mature early 

 enough to lay their eggs the next summer but the other species 

 do not mature until late and the fertilized females live over a sec- 



