200 AMERICAN SPIDERS 



two sheets have been joined. It is in many ways a much more fin- 

 ished piece of work than the flattened bag of Pardosa, and would 

 appear to be better adapted for dragging. 



Many of these lycosids are very active day hunters. Various 

 handsome and distinctively striped varieties abound in grassland and 

 in grassy areas along roadsides over most of the United States. One 

 of the best known is long-legged Lycosa rabida, whose gray cephalo- 

 thorax is marked by two chocolate-brown stripes and whose ab- 

 domen displays a median brown stripe margined in yellow. A close 

 congener is punctulata, in which the dark dorsal stripes are conspic- 

 uous, and the venter of the abdomen varied with a series of small 

 black points and markings. The body of Lycosa hentzi, a Florida 

 species, is yellowish, and resembles dried grass. All these striped 

 wolves are good climbers and often ascend high into grass bunches 

 and low shrubs. 



One of the most interesting habits of the Lycosidae is the ex- 

 tended and highly developed tunneling practiced by certain species. 

 The splendid burrows made by them were not, of course, perfected 

 in a single step. We can trace their gradual evolution in the habits 

 of their creators. At the outset the wolf spider took temporary 

 refuge beneath a stone, and lined the area with its characteristic 

 silken cell. But space requirements for the growing spider often 

 made it necessary either to enlarge the cell or to abandon it. There- 

 fore, in order to employ the first of these alternatives, the spider had 

 to develop the use of its chelicerae as digging instruments, and of its 

 silk to bind the soil so it could be removed from the premises. The 

 primitive burrows that resulted from attempts to enlarge the living 

 quarters were only shallow depressions in the earth immediately 

 below the cell retreat and many contemporary wolf spiders still 

 dig this type of pit. But other species increased their proficiency, 

 moved their burrows to favorable sites in the open, and dug tunnels. 

 Some made a further improvement by erecting at the burrow's 

 mouth an elevated turret to serve as a lookout. Developing along 

 another line, a few lycosids have learned to cover the entrance with 

 a movable lid similar to those of the trap-door spiders. 



All the burrowing wolf spiders of the United States are large 

 spiders that live more than one year, and in some instances do not 

 attain full maturity until the second year. The spiderlings establish 

 their burrows soon after they leave the mother, and gradually en- 

 large them as they grow. They dig with their chelicerae, which are 

 not, however, provided with a rake as are those of the trap-door 



