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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)., Published as part of 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, pp. 1-54 in European Journal of Taxonomy 832 (1) on pages 11-12, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.832.1877, http://zenodo.org/record/6916850, {"references":["Montgomery T. H. 1904. Descriptions of North American Araneae of the families Lycosidae and Pisauridae. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 56: 261 - 325.","Zyuzin A. A. & Logunov D. V. 2000. New and little-known species of the Lycosidae from Azerbaijan, the Caucasus (Araneae, Lycosidae). Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society 11: 305 - 319.","Wallace H. K. 1942. A revision of the burrowing spiders of the genus Geolycosa. The American Midland Naturalist 27 (1): 1 - 62. https: // doi. org / 10.2307 / 2421024","World Spider Catalog. 2022. World Spider Catalog. Version 22.5. Natural History Museum Bern. Available from http: // wsc. nmbe. ch [accessed 9 Dec. 2021]. https: // doi. org / 10.24436 / 2"]}

Geolycosa vultuosa (C.L. Koch, 1838) Figs 1, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A, 7A, 8A, 21A, 22A Lycosa vultuosa C.L. Koch, 1838: 102, figs 407–408 (D ♂ ♀). Lycosa infernalis Motschulsky, 1849: 289, pl. 2 figs 1–2 (D ♂; N.B.: considered a nomen dubium by Zyuzin & Logunov 2000: 309). Trochosa infernalis Thorell, 1875: 172 (D ♀). Arctosa vultuosa – Simon 1864: 346. Trochosa infernalis – Lendl 1887: 37, 51, figs 1–15 (♂ ♀). Mimohogna vultuosa – Roewer 1955: 279. Lycosa vultuosa – Fuhn & Niculescu-Burlacu 1971: 202, figs 98a–b, 99a–f (♂ ♀). — Miller 1971: 154, pl. xxiii fig. 24, pl. xxiv fig. 5 (♂ ♀). — Loksa 1972: 51, figs 44c, 46c–d (♂ ♀). — Mcheidze 1997: 226, figs 474–475 (♂ ♀). Geolycosa vultuosa – Zyuzin & Logunov 2000: 308, figs 5–6, 10 (T ♂ ♀ from Lycosa). — Kovblyuk et al. 2012: 246, figs 8, 11, 14, 18, 21, 27, 30, 36, 39, 43 (♂ ♀). Diagnosis Large lycosids (carapace> 5 mm). 1 st eye row as wide as 2 nd eye row (PME). Front of cephalothorax square from above. 1 st eye row 0.5 width of bulb. The only species of Geolycosa in the Levantine region (Figs 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A). The only species in the Levant with a similar habitus is Hogna effera (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872). It is generally smaller, with septal pedicel as long as width of septum base, TA smaller than 0.5 width of bulb. Material examined ISRAEL – Galilee • 2 ♂♂; Karmiel; [32.9168° N, 35.2946° E]; 30 Dec. 2016; I. Armiach Steinpress leg.; HUJ INV-AR20960, HUJ INV-AR20961. Natural history This is a burrowing species, found mainly in open, herbaceous habitats (Mcheidze 1997). Hibernation takes place in the burrow (at least in the north of its range) (Mcheidze 1997), juveniles emerge in springtime. Maturation takes about a year (Mcheidze 1997). The species is preyed upon by pompiliids, scorpions and centipedes, and the eggs are subject to mite infestations (Mcheidze 1997). The specimens examined in this study were found active in daytime in an urban meadow: one on the surface, the other in a burrow with a turret made of soil (Figs 7A, 19A, 21A, 22, Table 4). Distribution AZERBAIJAN, BULGARIA, GEORGIA, HUNGARY, IRAN, RUSSIA, TURKEY, UKRAINE (World Spider Catalog 2022), ISRAEL. According to Mcheidze (1997), also SYRIA. Records ISRAEL: Galilee (Karmiel) (Fig. 1). Relationships Geolycosa vultuosa is related to Geolycosa charitonovi (Mcheidze, 1997) and Geolycosa dunini Zyuzin & Logunov, 2000 (Zyuzin & Logunov 2000). The type species of Geolycosa (G. latifrons Montgomery, 1904) is of Nearctic distribution. It may not be congeneric with the Palearctic species ascribed to Geolycosa. As the revision work needed to find the correct phylogenetic placement of G. vultuosa is widely beyond the scope of this work, we refrained from moving G. vultuosa to a different genus., Published as part of 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, pp. 1-54 in European Journal of Taxonomy 832 (1) on pages 12-13, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.832.1877, http://zenodo.org/record/6916850, {"references":["Koch C. L. 1838. Die Arachniden. C. H. Zeh'sche Buchhandlung, Nurnberg. https: // doi. org / 10.5962 / bhl. title. 43744","Motschulsky V. 1849. Note on two venomous spiders from southern Russia. Bulletin of the Imperial Society of Naturalists in Moscow 1: 289 - 290.","Zyuzin A. A. & Logunov D. V. 2000. New and little-known species of the Lycosidae from Azerbaijan, the Caucasus (Araneae, Lycosidae). Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society 11: 305 - 319.","Thorell T. 1875. Descriptions of several European and North African spiders. Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps-Akademiens Handlingar 13 (5): 1 - 204.","Simon E. 1864. Histoire Naturelle des Araignees (Araneides). Librairie encyclopedique de Roret, Paris. https: // doi. org / 10.5962 / bhl. title. 47654","Lendl A. 1887. A Trochosa infernalis (Motsch.) parzasarol es parzasi szerveirol. Uber die Begattung und die Copulationsorgane von Trochosa infernalis Motsch. Termeszetrajzi Fuzetek 11 (1): 30 - 40, 51 - 57.","Roewer C. F. 1955. Katalog der Araneae von 1758 bis 1940, bzw. 1954. 2. Band, Abt. a (Lycosaeformia, Dionycha [excl. Salticiformia]). 2. Band, Abt. b (Salticiformia, Cribellata) (Synonyma-Verzeichnis, Gesamtindex). Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels.","Fuhn I. E. & Niculescu-Burlacu F. 1971. Fam. Lycosidae. In: Fauna Republicii Socialiste Romania 260 Arachnida Volumul V, Fascicula 3. Academiei Republicii Socialiste Romania, Bucharest.","Miller F. 1971. Pavouci-Araneida. Klic zvireny CSSR 4: 51 - 306.","Loksa I. 1972. Araneae II. Fauna Hungariae 109: 1 - 112.","Mcheidze T. S. 1997. Spiders of Georgia: Systematics, Ecology, Zoogeographic Review. Tbilisi Univ.","Kovblyuk M. M., Otto S., Marusik Y. M. & Ponomarev A. V. 2012. Redescription of the Caucasian species Geolycosa charitonovi (Mcheidze, 1997) (Araneae: Lycosidae), with the first description of the male. Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society 15 (8): 245 - 252. https: // doi. org / 10.13156 / arac. 2012.15.1.245","Simon E. 1876. Etudes arachnologiques. 4 e memoire. VII. Revision des especes europeennes du groupe de la Lycosa tarentula Rossi. Annales de la Societe entomologique de France (5) 6: 57 - 91.","Koch C. L. 1836. Die Arachniden. Dritter Band. C. H. Zeh'sche Buchhandlung, Nurnberg. https: // doi. org / 10.5962 / bhl. title. 43744","World Spider Catalog. 2022. World Spider Catalog. Version 22.5. Natural History Museum Bern. Available from http: // wsc. nmbe. ch [accessed 9 Dec. 2021]. https: // doi. org / 10.24436 / 2","Montgomery T. H. 1904. Descriptions of North American Araneae of the families Lycosidae and Pisauridae. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 56: 261 - 325."]}

Geolycosa infensa (L. Koch, 1877) Lycosa infensa Koch, 1877: 933, pl. 80, fig. 7; Rainbow 1911: 269; McKay 1985: 78 ���79. Scaptocosa infensa (L. Koch).��� Roewer 1955: 291; Rack 1961: 37. Schizocosa infensa (L. Koch).��� McKay 1973: 381. Type data. Syntypes. Immature male, Sydney [33��53���S, 151��13���E, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA] (NHM 1919.9.18.412); immature female, same locality (ZMH Rack (1961) -catalogue 461, Museum Godeffroy); immature, Rockhampton [23��22'S, 150��30'E, Queensland, AUSTRALIA] (ZMH Rack (1961) -catalogue 461, Museum Godeffroy) (all examined). Remarks. All known syntypes of Lycosa infensa conform to the somatic characters of the generic diagnosis of Tasmanicosa as presented here due to their carapace and opisthosoma colouration as illustrated in Koch (1877). However, all syntypes are immature spiders and taking into account the somatic similarities of many species within the genus, the true identity of L. infensa cannot be established. The species is therefore considered a nomen dubium. Roewer (1955) transferred this species to Scaptocosa Banks, 1904, a junior synonym of Geolycosa Montgomery, 1904, where it is currently listed (World Spider Catalog 2016)., Published as part of Framenau, Volker W. & Baehr, Barbara C., 2016, Revision of the Australian Union-Jack wolf spiders, genus Tasmanicosa (Araneae, Lycosidae, Lycosinae), pp. 1-82 in Zootaxa 4213 (1) on page 51, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4213.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/253033, {"references":["Koch, L. (1877) Die Arachniden Australiens nach der Natur beschrieben und abgebildet. 1. Theil. 7. Lieferung. Verlag von Bauer und Raspe, Nurnberg, pp. 889 - 968.","Rainbow, W. J. (1911) A census of Australian Araneidae. Records of the Australian Museum, 9, 107 - 319. https: // doi. org / 10.3853 / j. 0067 - 1975.9.1911.928","McKay, R. J. (1985) Lycosidae. In: Walton, D. W. (Ed), Zoological Catalogue of Australia 3. Arachnida, Mygalomorphae, Araneomorphae in Part, Pseudoscorpionida, Amblypygida, Palpigradi. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, pp. 73 - 88.","Roewer, C. F. (1955) Katalog der Araneae von 1758 bis 1940, bzw. 1954. 2. Band, Abt. a (Lycosaeformia, Dionycha [excl. Salticiformia]). Institut Royal de Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Bruxelles, 1 - 1751.","Rack, G. (1961) Die Entomologischen Sammlungen des Zoologischen Staatsinstituts und Zoologischen Museums Hamburg. II. Teil. Chelicerata II: Araneae. Mitteilungen des Hamburgischen Zoologischen Museums und Instituts, 59, 1 - 60.","McKay, R. J. (1973) The wolf spiders of Australia (Araneae: Lycosidae): 1. The bicolor group. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 16, 375 - 398.","World Spider Catalog (2016) World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern, Bern. Available from http: // www. wsc. nmbe. ch / (accessed 6 July 2016)"]}

Hemocytes of the spider Geolycosa vultuosa (Koch, 1838) using Giemsa, Pappenheim and acridine orange staining and their total an d differential counts were studied. In all specimentes studied prohemocytes, plasmatocyte s, granulocytes, oenocytoides and one type of unidentified cell were observed. Granulocytes and plasmatocytes are the most numerous cells in the hemolymph of Geolycosa vultuosa . Difference in total hemocyte count in studied spiders was observed.