''Alopecosa ovalis'' is a species of

wolf spider Wolf spiders are members of the family Lycosidae (). They are robust and agile hunters with excellent eyesight. They live mostly in solitude, hunt alone, and do not spin webs. Some are opportunistic hunters, pouncing upon prey as they find it or ...

found in

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The female has a length (excluding legs) of up to 9 mm, the male being rather smaller at about 8 mm. The female has a wide reddish-brown longitudinal band on the back of the

carapace A carapace is a Dorsum (biology), dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tor ...

with a yellowish band along the back of the

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the torso. ...

. The legs are faintly ringed. The male is similar but is generally much hairier and with dark legs with no trace of ringing. This species, as well as '' A. huabanna'', which was described in the same paper, are similar to '' A. hokkaidensis'' and '' A. moriutii'' from

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and '' A. hingganica'' from Inner Mongolia, and '' A. pictilis'' from the northern Holarctic.Chen ''et al.'' 2000 The species name refers to the oval shape of the median septum of the

epigyne The epigyne or epigynum is the external genital structure of female spiders. As the epigyne varies greatly in form in different species, even in closely related ones, it often provides the most distinctive characteristic for recognizing species. ...

Footnotes

References

* (2000): Two new species of the genus ''Alopecosa'' Simon (Araneae: Lycosidae) from Inner Mongolia, China. ''Zoological Studies'' 39(2): 133-137
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ovalis Fauna of Inner Mongolia Spiders of China Spiders described in 2000 {{Lycosidae-stub