172 
Psyche 
[June 
Table II. Courtship Responses to Various Types of Silk by Male Lycosa rabida 
and Male L. punctulata. 
Experimental Silks 
Clean 
Female 
con- 
Male 
con- 
Female 
hetero- 
lepidop- 
cage 
specific 
specific 
specific 
teran 
L. rabida 
number tested 
20 
40 
20 
0 
20 
number courting 
1 
20 
0 
— 
0 
number not courting 
19 
20 
20 
— 
20 
Y courtship 
latency (min) 
1.27 
2.30 ±.2 
— 
— 
— . 
L. punctulata 
number tested 
20 
18 
20 
20 
20 
number courting 
2 
11 
1 
0 
1 
number not courting 
18 
7 
19 
20 
19 
Y courtship 
latency (min) 
4.06 ±.7 
2.55 ±.7 
4.93 
4.57 
treated lost elasticity and drooped between the supporting glass 
rods. Both unprimed male L. rabida (N = 10) and unprimed male 
L. punctulata (N — 10) exhibited short bouts of chemoexploratory 
behavior at washed lines, but neither species exhibited courtship or 
trail-following behavior during the 5-min trials. 
Discussion 
Trail-following has been observed in a variety of arthropods. 
Terrestrial chemical trails are often employed by eusocial insects, 
but such trails are detected by the receiver as a rapidly decaying 
vapor cloud above the substratum and provide no directional in- 
formation (Wilson, 1971). Lepidopteran larvae ( Malacosoma , Hy- 
po no m cut a and Thaumetopoed) have been observed to follow silk 
trails from their nest to a food source; but tactile information 
provided by the silk is unimportant, and the pheromone decays 
within a few minutes (Fitzgerald, 1976; Wigglesworth, 1966). Wolf 
spider trails differ from the above examples in function (mating 
vs. food), in the use of a contact rather than an olfactory phero- 
mone, and in the presence of an inherent polarity. Silk lines in the 
