THE INFLUENCE OF MICROHABITAT 
AND PREY AVAILABILITY ON 
BURROW ESTABLISHMENT OF YOUNG 
GEOLYCOSA TURRICOLA (TREAT) 
AND G. MICANOPY WALLACE 
(ARANEAE: LYCOSIDAE): A LABORATORY STUDY* 
By G. L. Miller 
Department of Entomology, 
Mississippi Entomological Museum, 
Drawer EM, 
Mississippi State University 
Mississippi State, MS 39762 
Introduction 
The survival of an animal largely depends on its ability to locate 
and use a suitable habitat. The suitability of a habitat will depend on 
such things as prey availability, microhabitat characteristics and the 
interaction of these, but our understanding of the interaction of 
these factors and how they effect the animal’s choice of habitat is 
poor (Krebs, 1978). 
For spiders, there have been many studies which show the 
importance of habitat characteristics and prey abundance in the 
selection of foraging and web sites (e.g., Savory, 1930; Enders, 1977; 
Riechert, 1976; Riechert and Tracy, 1975). However, most studies 
deal with adult spiders (some exceptions being the work of Waldorf, 
1976; Enders, 1977 and Hallander, 1970) and our understanding of 
which factors may influence habitat selection in newly dispersing 
young spiders is limited. These factors are particularly important for 
burrowing wolf spiders ( Geolycosa ) since the selected burrow site is 
generally used throughout the life of the spider (Wallace, 1942). In 
this paper I test selected hypotheses about the interactions among 
burrow establishment, prey availability, and several microhabitat 
characteristics in two species of burrowing wolf spiders. This paper 
is not concerned with the relationship between the burrow site 
characteristics and survival of the spiderling, which is best studied in 
the field (see Reichert, 1976 and Reichert and Tracy, 1975 for 
* Manuscript received by the editor January 18, 1984. 
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