A PRESUMPTIVE PHEROMONE-EMITTING STRUCTURE 
IN WOLF SPIDERS 
(ARANEAE, LYCOSIDAE)* 
By Torbjorn Kronestedt 
Department of Entomology, 
Swedish Museum of Natural History, 
S-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden 
The occurrence of pheromones in lycosid spiders has long been 
indicated on behavioural grounds. (For a review on chemical com- 
munication in spiders, see Tietjen and Rovner 1982.) There are 
bioassay evidences for (1) contact sex pheromones deposited on the 
substrate by females (Bristowe and Locket, 1926; Rovner, 1968; 
Hegdekar and Dondale, 1969; Richter et al., 1971; Dijkstra, 1976; 
Robert and Krafft, 1981), (2) contact sex pheromones associated 
with draglines laid by females (Kaston, 1936; Engelhardt, 1964; 
Richter et al., 1971; Dondale and Hegdekar, 1973; Tietjen, 1977, 
1979b; Tietjen and Rovner, 1980; Robert and Krafft, 1981), (3) 
contact sex pheromones associated with female integument (Kas- 
ton, 1936), and (4) airborne sex pheromones given off by females 
(Tietjen, 1979a). Candidates for contact pheromone perception are 
chemosensitive hairs occurring on legs and palps. The number of 
these hairs is considerably increased in adult males in comparison to 
immatures and adult females (Tietjen and Rovner, 1980, 1982), and 
in certain lycosid genera this increase is rather drastic (Kronestedt, 
1979a). No site of production and release of pheromones in wolf 
spiders has so far been found (Tietjen and Rovner, 1982). The pres- 
ent note focuses on a type of structure which is presumably involved 
in the release of pheromones in this spider family. 
Studies on courtship behaviour in various lycosid species have 
been undertaken for supplementing morphological data in taxo- 
nomic contexts as well as for finding connections between adult 
male secondary sex characters and species-specific behavioural ele- 
ments. Among the species studied, the adult male of Alopecosa 
cuneata (Clerck) has a unique character in its first tibiae being tumid 
* Manuscript received by the editor January 8, 1986. 
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