Arctic wolf spider

The Arctic wolf spider (Pardosa glacialis) [1][2] is a type of wolf spider in the genus Pardosa, with a holarctic distribution and endemic to the Arctic, particularly Greenland.

Arctic wolf spider
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Lycosidae
Genus: Pardosa
Species:
P. glacialis
Binomial name
Pardosa glacialis
(Thorell, 1872)

Description

The Arctic wolf spider can live for at least two years, grows as long as 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) and is a carnivore.[3]

Thickening of Exoskeleton

A 10-year study of the Arctic wolf spider reflected that the exoskeleton thickness averaged 0.104 inch (2.65 millimeters), a 2 percent increase over the 0.102 inch (2.6 millimeters) commonly found in the early years of the study, this is postulated to be potentially due to longer summers. Larger adult females will probably increase spider populations, because larger females produce larger and/or more offspring. This species is cannibalistic and as adults grow even bigger, they will devour more spiderlings as prey keeping the population in check.[3][4]

Research suggests that when earlier snowmelt occurs in higher arctic site, Wolf spider Pardosa glacialis produces first clutch earlier and second clutch generally occurs later in the summer. The offsprings in first clutch depend on size of female wolf spider. But second clutch size does not depend on body size of spider.[5]

See also

References
  1. CanadianArachnology.org: Pardosa glacialis (Thorell, 1872) Archived July 25, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  2. EOL: Pardosa glacialis (Thorell, 1872)
  3. National Geographic: Spiders Getting Bigger – Global Warming to Blame?
  4. The Register: 2060: Humvee-sized, bulletproof meat-eating spiders attack
  5. Høye, Toke T.; Kresse, Jean-Claude; Koltz, Amanda M.; Bowden, Joseph J. (2020-06-24). "Earlier springs enable high-Arctic wolf spiders to produce a second clutch". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 287 (1929): 20200982. doi:10.1098/rspb.2020.0982.


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