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A Guide to Common Singapore Spiders
by Joseph K H Koh
  White-Dotted Wolf Spider
Venonia coruscans (Thorell) 1894
 
close-up of black female
Female
 The white dot on the posterior end of the abdomen is characteristic of the species. It spins a tiny sheet-web, without a retreat. Most Wolf Spiders hunt on the ground. Classification: Family Lycosidae, Wolf Spiders.
Habitat: Forest litter.
Female: 4 mm.
Male: 3 mm.
Distribution: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand.
Female Wolf Spiders are immediately recognisable in the field because they roam around with a spherical egg-sac attached to their spinnerets. The egg-sac is made up of two halves united by a seam.
close-up of female with spiderlings on her back Newly hatched spiderlings can sometimes be seen riding on the back of their mother (right, Pardosa sp. female).

The spiderlings apparently do not feed while on the mother's back, surviving on the remains of their yolk.

If they fall off, they can still hang on to the mother by a silken life-line, and can easily return to the mother's back via its legs or palps. The spiderlings disperse only after undergoing a moulting.

close-up of face showing palps
Eye arrangement of a
Wolf Spider, Pardosa sp.
Note the swollen palps (black)
of the male.
The eyes are in three rows comprising a front row of four small eyes, and a median and back row of two larger eyes each. When a male meets a female, it waves its palps and performs a series of push-up movements.
close-up of male showing palps
A male
Pardosa pseudoannulata
waving its black-and-white
palps during courtship
These antics serve to establish the identity of the male, a signal to the female that it is a suitor of the same species to be mated with, and not food to be consumed!
  From "A Guide to Common Singapore Spiders" by Joseph K. H. Koh
BP Guide to Nature Series published by the Singapore Science Centre and sponsored by British Petroleum
© 2000 Joseph K H Koh