Pardosa glacialis (Thorell, 1872) is described by Leech (1966) as being eurytopic, but at Zackenberg in northeast Greenland it is found more abundantly in mesic heath (pers. obs.) and is holarctic in distribution (World Spider Catelog Version 16).

Leech described an individual’s behaviour as follows: “Mating was never observed in P. glacialis, but one male which had repeatedly been shunned by all females, began courting a large male Chironomid, which was lying on its side almost dead.

The male eventually mounted the fly in the usual Pardosa manner, it then discovered the mistake and ate the fly.” Previous year’s snowmelt is a good predictor of body size variation in this species and females are more strongly affected by environmental variation (Høye et al. 2009, Høye and Hammel 2010).

References and links:

  • Leech RE. 1966. The spiders (Araneida) of Hazen Camp 81o49’ N, 71o 18’ W. Quaest Entomol 2:153-212
  • World Spider Catalog 2015. Natural History Museum Bern, version 16
  • Høye TT et al. 2009. Climate change and sexual size dimorphism in an Arctic spider. Biol Lett 5:542-544
  • Høye TT & Hammel JU 2010. Climate change and altitudinal variation in sexual size dimorphism of arctic wolf spiders. Clim Res 41:259–265