Geolycosa Montgomery, 1904

Steinpress, Igor Armiach, Cohen, Mira, Pétillon, Julien, Chipman, Ariel D. & Gavish-Regev, Efrat, 2022, Lycosa Latreille, 1804 (Araneae, Lycosidae) of Israel, with a note on Geolycosa Montgomery, 1904, European Journal of Taxonomy 832 (1), pp. 1-54 : 11-12

Genus Geolycosa Montgomery, 1904

Type species

Geolycosa latifrons Montgomery, 1904 .

Diagnosis

Large lycosids; carapace elevated anteriorly; PME and ALE forming rectangle; septal pedicel on epigyne and spur on TA long ( Zyuzin & Logunov 2000).

Description

Leg I strongest, nearly as long as IV, with thick scopulae on three terminal joints. Chelicerae large. Cephalic region of cephalothorax raised. 1 st eye row as wide as 2 nd eye row (PME). Otherwise, similar to Lycosa ( Montgomery 1904) . The type species with elongated epigynal septum and elongated palpal TA ( Wallace 1942).

Natural history

Burrowing lycosids, not venturing far from their burrow (except mature males) ( Wallace 1942).

Distribution

In its current composition Geolycosa is nearly cosmopolitan, recorded in all continents, except Antarctica, in tropical to temperate latitudes.

Relationships

Geolycosa is a polyphyletic genus, as shown by Piecentini et al. (2019). The morphology is possibly a convergence across Lycosinae, due to adaptation to a digging lifestyle. The type species is from North America, and it might not be related to the Old-World species.

Composition

72 species are recorded in the World Spider Catalog (2022).