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Talk:Wolf spider

Description
"The wolf spiders are capable of nothing defensive to bites, and some South American species may give bites that are medically significant. However, in general their presence works very much in favor of humans wherever they are found."

Even if the first sentence of that paragraph was improved, I think the entire paragraph is redundant when taken in context. It's directly followed by the "Toxicity" section. I'm new-ish to editing Wikipedia, so I'm not sure if I should just go ahead and remove that paragraph or not. :^) -- Timothym (talk) 07:15, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Wrong Picture

The picture included (mistakenly) at the end of the "wolf spider" article is a jumping spider. You can tell very easily by the "squared-off" front end of the cephalo-thorax and the eye arrangement. Also, if you have the living specimen, you will note that she will happily jump from the table to your finger tip, from finger tip to finger tip, and that she will also scale sheer glass walls with complete security. Wolf spiders do no better on glass than human beings (except for Spiderman, of course) ;-)

Name
Is the spider a wolf spider, Wolf spider, or Wolf Spider? The page name indicates the last, and the text of the artilce indicates the first. - SCEhard T 04:36, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

 * A good point, which I've now dealt with. Capital letters are controversial when applied to individual species; for whole groups, they're definitely not used. --Stemonitis 14:43, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Size
There are several genera of wolf spiders and even more species. The largest member of the Lycosidae in the United States is called the "Carolina Wolf Spider." Although I am living in N. Carolina, The body of this species is approximately one inch long.

Wolf spiders do not climb well. They can't go up glass, for instance. So they are at risk if they climb up walls. One danger is falling and injuring themselves. Another danger is falling into something that they can't climb out of --

 * Nonsense. I have them in Garrett Co. MD and they will climb up a few feet at least.   Climbing up glass does not count, but they do climb.  --71.245.164.83 (talk) 03:10, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Anyway, tell your friend that wolf spiders are among the real scairdy cats of the spider world. They have good vision, so it would be hard to put your hand down on one accidentally because it would see you and then your hand approaching and it would run away as fast as it could. Jumping spiders can be kind of like the squirrels that run around the tree trunk when they see you approaching but then circle around to keep an eye on you, whereas wolf spiders are more like rabbits that run as soon as they see you have started to move on them.

 * The big ones in Garrett Co. MD are very wary of humans and will not attack.  Shoo them off but don't kill them.--71.245.164.83 (talk) 03:10, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

I've purchased a couple of species of spider that are supposed to be "aggressive," but I have yet to find one that will actually approach my hand and try to bite. (I know there are tarantulas that are kept as pets that have bitten their handlers -- mostly when surprised close to their homes I think. But most of us do not have tarantulas living wild, and tarantulas don't frequent houses.) Tell you friend to just not grab his eight-legged friend and he'll probably be perfectly safe. (Of course if he lives somewhere near Sydney, Australia, all bets are off.)P0M 14:43, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't think they're "scairdy cats". I found one in my home recently. Wasn't exactly aggressive, but it certainly wasn't scared. It approached us pretty fearlessly. They are very fast though. The one we found was roughly the size of my hand, legs included, but it does have very long legs. The easiest way to identify one is flash a light on their eyes, they're very reflective. 220.239.3.18 (talk) 04:35, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

I am sure they can get as big as the palm of your hand-Keefer S--66.193.131.18 (talk) 16:45, 26 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Including the spread of the legs, they can be as big as a silver dollar (approximately 2" diameter - at least the ones in Garrett Co, MD. Scary yes, but at the same time, not aggressive.  It certainly does take some getting used to. I've only encountered them outside, in their natural environment. --71.245.164.83 (talk) 03:10, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Regarding the size listed as 'body size' - I think this means the size without the legs, but the term is ambigous from an outsiders perspective. I don't know if it's jargon, but if somone is certain they know what it means, could they throw in the clarifying parenthesis? Thankyou. Simon.p.hastings (talk) 01:38, 5 August 2010 (UTC)
 * i agree, some clarity would be a good idea, i assume this must mean without legs, because there is a wolf spider that lives under my BBQ which is biggest than a matchbox, i saw one in Cyprus bigger than my hand, and there is a photo at the bottom of this page of a female in the palm of someone's hand- clearly overall they can be bigger than 1.18 inches, but the way it's currently written suggests otherwise... 188.221.73.75 (talk) 13:49, 20 August 2013 (UTC)

 * Fixed.P0M (talk) 16:30, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

Comparison
"After the eggs hatch, the multitude of tiny spiders climb onto their mother's abdomen, where she carries them for a considerable period of time, comparable to human relationships."

Is that last comment necessary?

 * I have cleaned that up, with a reference. It is not great yet, just better. (By the way, please sign your comments!) --Charles Gaudette 05:55, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

I found one in my sons play pen it was the size of my hand also, legs included. Theyr so scary looking and big, they are also not afraide at all. I went near it and it did not move just sat there looking right at me. I'm thinking it bit my son because he had a red spot on his neck, I had found it ti'll later in the night. Are wolf spiders poisenness? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.113.76.255 (talk) 05:27, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

 * I'm sorry I missed this message before. You did not say where you are located. A one-inch body-length is about tops for wolf spiders. In the U.S. there are a couple of spiders in the genus Hogna that reach this size. I think they might stretch out to about a 3 inch diameter, so that might make them palm sized at least. (I just remembered that I have rather large hands.) In South America there are some species whose bites can produce tissue death at the site of the bite. In North America, Europe, and probably most other parts of the world, their bites are not a medical problem. It sounds like nothing serious happened to your child in the time between when you found the bite and "later in the night" and then when you wrote your e-mail message, so you are probably not going to see anything worse. If you do, please seek medical help.
 * You did not say that your child screamed when s/he was bitten. It sounds like the bite was not painful.
 * You may have encountered a "fishing spider," i.e., something like Dolomedes scriptus. They have a body length of one inch, and may be slower to move away than most wolf spiders.
 * If the spider you saw had a body length much over an inch, and if you live in Florida or the South-west part of the U.S., you may have encountered a Huntsman spider. Those in the genus Olios are known to be aggressive, although it is possible that their vision is poor enough that they mistake things like human fingers for prey items (because they don't connect the caterpillar-sized finger with the rest of the human body). Reports indicate that Huntsman bites are definitely not fun, but they are not regarded as medically significant injuries.
 * You mentioned that your child was in a playpen. If the playpen was directly on the floor, then a wolf spider might have been in the process of making its way across the playpen when your child rolled over on it. If it had been raised even an inch, it is unlikely that a wolf spider would have climbed into the area. Wheels or metal raisers would pose a huge barrier to wolf spiders because they can't climb slick things. The Dolomedes spiders generally will not come indoors. (Wolf spiders seem to find their way inside when it starts to get cold outside.) Huntsman spiders are good climbers and also seem to like the insides of houses and automobiles. I think you are not in Australia because it seems that lots of people from that part of the world have had encounters with Huntsman spiders. (Many of the picture of Huntsman on the WWW are in cars, on walls, or sticking out from behind wall clocks.)
 * People get spider bites in bed fairly frequently because various kinds of wandering spiders go exploring while humans are tossing and turning in bed. What would you do if a horse rolled over on you? ;-) P0M (talk) 16:51, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Page features overlap
The scientific classification box is overlapping the additional photos. I'm using FF 1.0.7. Also I just woke up to two wolf spiders here on my porch in Santa Cruz, CA. One of them was at least an inch and a half in body length and probably 4-5 inches in "legspan." plus you can find them in the woods and near your house. protect your animals and toddlers.

by lea Patrick of Buna, Texas — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.210.229.156 (talk) 13:27, 14 March 2018 (UTC)

Gallery
I think the gallery at the end is too big and cluttered, although these pictures could be useful for the article. maybe we could move it to the talk page and work these pictures one by one into a nice long article about wolf spiders? :) --Sarefo 01:40, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Distribution
Isn't it the map very false? I mean, no way at all those live here in Northern Europe atleast. We don't have any spiders that could attack humans.. Does anyone have a source for the distribution so that map can be redone?--Pudeo (Talk) 18:19, 15 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Where is anything said about wolf spiders attacking humans?

The map needs re-doing. I can't speak for the rest of Europe but it seems to indicate that Wolf spiders are found in the U.K. They're not. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.141.84.46 (talk) 17:34, 31 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Not true. It is impossible to prove that there are no specimens of anything in any place, but easy to demonstrate that there are some wolf spiders in England. See, for instance, http://orgprints.org/11474/01/Eyre_11474_ed.doc P0M (talk) 07:11, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

 * The spider from around the ancient Roman city of Tarentum which made everybody afraid in the Middle Ages is a rather large wolf spider, and it evidently convinced people that they could get bitten by it, but Fabre did not find it to be at all aggressive. Its venom is not problematical for humans. On the other hand, there are a few spiders in Europe that give a nasty bite. It's just that they are not wolf spiders and you have to grab one of them to get it to bite you, or corner it in your shoe with your big foot.

 * If you ever try to catch a wolf spider, no matter what kind it is, I think you will find that they are entirely concerned with one thing alone, and that is to get away from you.

 * You may not notice wolf spiders unless you look for them. If you want to find examples of European species, try this site:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/Spiders/spidhome.htm P0M 21:12, 15 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Perhaps, should I have said that there are no "poisonous" spiders then? Living in Finland, I have not encountered any of those big spiders or seen material that they exist here. The map says that they exist in the every country in the world, this can't be? Thus questioning it's relibiality. Perhaps some of these species can be found in the southern parts of the Northern World due to global warming, but I doubt these.. --Pudeo (Talk) 22:59, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

 * The largest member of the family found in the U.S. is around 2.5 cm. The smaller ones that I have seen are a couple of mm. long. (Just counting the body, not including the legs.) I seem to recall that the European tarantula (Lycosa tarantula) is almost that large. But the small ones are much more common around here. I didn't make the map, but it is consistent with what I know from other sources.  It's sort of like mice, you can find them just about anywhere. But they are not all of the same species.  There are several genera of wolf spiders and a very large number of species.

 * If you learn what they look like you will probably begin seeing them. Around here they are easiest to see in the early spring. As soon as it gets warm enough for flies and other insects to appear, a huge number of little wolf spiders come out of their winter hiding places and prowl around on the ground looking for something to eat. Since there is no grass growing at that time it is much easier to see them. They are in great danger of being stepped on by horses, cows, and smaller animals, so they keep a sharp watch for approaching creatures and they run very fast. I am fortunate to have 20/10 vision (good enough to be a jet fighter pilot), so maybe I can see them better than other people. Of course nobody else looks for them either.

 * When the evenings begin to turn cool in autumn I always find several large wolf spiders walking across my living room floor. They come through the cracks around the door to get into the warmer air.  That kind is typically around 1 cm. long. Most of them are well camoflaged when they are outside, but they stand out against the lighter color of my wooden floor. But when I lived in Nebraska I don't recall them ever entering the house. Probably the difference was that the porch was farther off the ground than the one I have now.

 * If you Google "lycosidae Finland" you will find plenty of information, and at http://www.pbase.com/holopain/image/59817715 you will see a nice picture of one that resembles closely the kind that visit me in my home. P0M 03:20, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

What do they eat?
What do they eat?
 * Insects, I would imagine. Skogul 12:27, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Do they eat crickets? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.24.250.93 (talk) 18:05, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

 * Definitely. P0M (talk) 20:28, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

How about a "Diet" section? 108.4.186.244 (talk) 03:08, 16 December 2013 (UTC)

Toxicity?
I don't know much about spiders, but I do know that little toxicity section about wolf spiders being deadly and what-not isn't true. I don't want to edit it due to my lack of knowledge, but someone needs to. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Special:Contributions/ (talk)
 * The misinformation seems to have been fixed.P0M (talk) 16:03, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

wolf spiders are very poisonus but my mom said thier fangs are to small to bite-Keefer Stoldt —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.193.131.18 (talk) 16:39, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

 * Sorry. Wrong on both points as far as N. America goes. Some of the S. American lycosidae are quite toxic, although not enough to require hospitalization as far as I know. The ones in N. America are not a problem -- except that mechanically their bites are pretty fierce. One lady wrote in to this discussion group several years ago and said she put her shoe one after a wolf spider had taken refuge there, and it bit through her toenail.

 * I once was trying to slow a small wolf spider down enough that I could get it into a bottle. I put one hand down in front of it. It ran over that hand. I put my other hand right up in front. Then I switch hands. I did this three or four times and the spider decided she had suffered enough. She bit me without stopping her forward motionw. Her whole body length could not have been more than about 1/3 inch. So to see her fangs I would have needed a magnifying glass or at least to get very, very close. Nevertheless I definitely felt the pain and the tingle where she had bitten me.Even full-sized black widows have tiny little fangs. They are big enough, however.

 * Think about chiggers. They are too small to see, but they can still bite.P0M (talk) 20:25, 26 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Clearly any variety of spider is capable of puncturing the shell of almost any insect, and thereby human skin.  So wolf spiders are probably capable of biting humans.   Whether they are willing to do so, or able to inflict any harm is still an open subject.--71.245.164.83 (talk) 03:22, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

 * Article references on toxicity to humans are weak. One link to a reference is broken, the other has no discussion of human toxicity.   Needs work.   I've not found wolf spiders to be aggressive to humans and have no material to provide regarding this subject. --71.245.164.83 (talk) 03:16, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

 * I'll check. The references on toxicity to humans for almost all spiders are weak. Even the LD-50 for the few spiders that can kill humans is probably unknown because scientists cannot go around injecting humans with spider venoms. The next best thing is to inject lab animals with venom, but the trouble is that species by species the reactions to various venoms and highly idiosyncratic. What will kill a horse won't faze a rabbit. If hospitalizations are not frequently involved, physicians do not gain any information about the toxicity of these bites. Even if the information were collected, it might well be highly subjective. "It hurt like hell for a few minutes," or something like that. I think the Geolycosidae are much more likely to bite humans. They live at the bottom of tunnels, and they do not run around, so running away is doubly not an option for them. The result is that if you dig one of them out of its hole and make the mistake of poking your finger at it, it will very likely attack. I tried to photograph one once and needed to flick some soil particles off of it with a Q-tip. The spider pounced on the Q-tip as soon as it got too close, and it left a heavy stain of venom where it bit. I was happy with myself for not having used a finger. Just the thought of that much foreign substance being injected makes me a little leery.

 * We have both Hogna carolinensis and Hogna helluo in my area, and they are both quite large -- about 1 inch in body length. Neither one is at all inclined to bite humans. Their strategy is to run rather than to fight. I communicated with a lady here in N. Carolina who had put her shoe on only to discover that there was a wolf spider in there. She said that it bit through her toenail. I'm pretty sure it was one of the Hogna species, so I have to believe that they will bite if there is no possibility of running and they are getting hurt. But she reported no major ill effects.

 * I vaguely remember that in S. America there are some species whose bites do cause medical problems. I should take another look. Maybe something new has come out in the last year or so.P0M (talk) 04:40, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

 * I found one book via Google:

"In a study of spider envenomations, 515 patients bitten by wolf spiders (family Lycosidae) developed mild effects, and only three patients received antivenom. Since 1985, Butantan Institute spider antivenom does not include an anti-Lycosid fraction (46, 47) 46 Lucas S. Spiders in Brazil, //Toxicon// 1988;26(9):271-173 (sic) 47 Ribeiro LA, Jorge MT, Presco PV, et al. Wolf spider bites in Sao Paulo, Brazil: a clinical and epidemiological study of 515 cases. //Toxicon// 1990:130(8):1817-1824 Third Edition Medical Toxicology Editor Richard C. Dart et al. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins © 2004 by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins iSBN 0-7817-2845-2
 * If anybody wants to pop these references into the article, be my guest.P0M (talk) 15:56, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Cleared up Info
Wolf Spiders can grow (with legs) to be the size of your palm. I've seen some personally bigger than some tarantulas. In fact, I caught one in my office today about 1 1/4 inch long (without legs). There's reports of some getting to be 2 Inches long in books and other articles.

As far as toxicity, their bites are similar to a bee sting. Little redness, swelling, no where near fatal by any stretch. Wolf Spiders are oportunist hunters, anything that's smaller than them that they can sneak up on and kill they'll give it a try. You can handle them- I pet the one i caught bare-handed and named him Pete heh. They eat crickets, flies (if they can catch them), small geckos, and even young grass hoppers. Rule of thumb, don't play with spiders you don't what are, but wolf spiders are pretty tolerable of people, they just dont want to get squished, and will make every attempt to get out of your way and won't agressively defend anything- except some borrowing species... Any spider in a web is more likely to attack and bite when cornered than a free-roaming wolf spider- Just dont get some species of wolf spider mixed up with Brown Recluses- I live in texas some look strikingly similar in dim light(don't pet recluses, they're antisocial at best)

The one thing i'm curious about is mating habbits and socialogy of wolf spiders. Are they all lone-wolfs? I'm going to catch a good 10 or so and put them in a cage and feed them all and see if they eat eachother- since they do eat smaller spiders as well...
 * They will definitely eat each other. There are some spiders that live together, but not any of the Lycosidae that I know about. P0M (talk) 16:03, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Disclaimer: I'm not a scientist or arachnid specialist by any means, but I have handled many spiders and actively engage Wolf Spiders in particular since they live everywhere- scares my little nieces good when you hold out your hands and 6 wolf spiders fly out crawling up your arms! :) -Mike —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.155.40.172 (talk) 23:09, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Forgot one- Wolf Spiders carry their egg around with them. When the spiders have matured enough to hatch the egg gets torn open and the spiders pile up on the mother. She carries them for a couple weeks until they're grown enough to hunt on their own, then they scatter.

They are primarily nocturnal. You can shine a light in their eyes and see the reflective disc- like a cat/dog and several other animals with the similar reflectant lens in their eyes.

And on the note of looking like a recluse- if you find them wandering around, chances are it's not a recluse due to the fact that recluses, like their name states, are very shy arachnids and prefer small dark places- shoes, cracks in walls, cinderblocks, irrigation valve boxes- caught black widows a month back- my damn technicians killed em 'cuase they were scared of widows...sissies.

But don't be afraid of wolf spiders in any circumstance, I dare you to gently pick on up, or scoot it onto your hand. They'll usually sit right on it (like the warmth?) otherwise will run up your arm and hide in a crease of your sleeve... -Mike —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.155.40.172 (talk) 23:18, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Comparative Scale
I wonder if someone could perhaps draw up the size of this spider in comparison to say a human hand. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.177.12.104 (talk) 02:56, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Wolf spiders come in all sizes. The largest American species has a body length of about 1 inch long. The smallest of the wolf spiders are around 1/8 inch long. So a single drawing would have to include both extremes. P0M (talk) 16:03, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Scale and Images
I discovered a rather large specimen outside of my home in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma at ~1430 (day time). I'm not an artist, but I did get to handle the spider a bit. His leg span measured 3" and would cover most of a person's hand. The spider over all was a good sport about me picking him up and carrying him to his photo op.  It didn't even seem to mind me putting a quarter and a pen near it.  I would guess that most times it would sit still instinctively, so that it's natural camouflage would give it protection.  Loud noises did tend to startle it.  When something of this nature would occur it would jump 2-4" straight up and run to the nearest wall or place it thought it could hide.
 * Rabidosa punctulata I think. The front two legs of the males of this species are black, unlike the females whose legs are all the same color. P0M (talk) 16:03, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Going back to the size topic, I've personally caught a wolf spider much bigger then this. Four years ago I caught a spider using the lid from a 50 CD-R stack. I had to work it back and forth to get his legs inside the case; the spider's leg span was bigger then a CD. I'll post those pictures when I find them.
 * That's too large to be a wolf spider. I think it's likely to have been one of the Sparassidae (Huntsman spiders). In your area it could have been Heteropoda venatoria or Olios fasciculatus. The former species is rather shy, the latter species is possibly a little more aggressive. One of the unusual characteristics of the Huntsman spiders is that they run at top speeds in an absolutely straight line. They may make prey mistakes, so watch your fingers. P0M (talk) 16:03, 26 July 2008 (UTC)
 * The other one wasn't a huntsman spider. The spider I found was fairly fury.  It didn't have the crab-like stance the huntsman seems to have and the legs were all roughly the same length.  It was hanging from a brick wall with two legs back and two forward.  Looking back I guess it may have been a tarantula but I could swear it looked more like the photos I posted.  Still trying to find the photo's I took of it.    —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kesterj (talk • contribs) 02:05, 12 October 2008 (UTC)
 * The eyes of tarantulas are very much different from those of the wolf spiders. So you might want to look at some close-up images of tarantula eyes and of wolf spider eyes. Post the pictures if you ever find them. I recently went back to check sizes and couldn't find any expert testimony about wolf spiders with bodies above approx. one inch long. P0M (talk) 07:02, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

3 Images added to the article —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kesterj (talk • contribs) 09:25, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Wrong photo -- vandalism?
I just noticed that somebody has inserted a picture of one of the Salticidae into the taxonomy box. I will fix it. P0M (talk) 16:16, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

misleading information
The article currently has wolf spiders enlarged to 3 inches. The largest American wolf spiders, Hogna carolinensis, are about 1 in long -- if you count only body length. As far as I know, none of the Lycosidae have body lengths larger than that.

Spider dealers generally measure the size of tarantulas (and other spiders they may have for sale) by measuring the spread of the spider's legs. That would mean that a somewhat leggy H. carolinensis would probably be around 3 inches.

There are Huntsman spiders in S.E. Asia somewhere with leg spans of around 10 inches -- that's much larger than the kind that are found in the U.S., Japan, etc. So it is possible that there may be some huge wolf spider somewhere with a body length of 3 inches. If so, let's have the citation. Otherwise, the claim will have to go. P0M (talk) 00:39, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

 * I am no expert and I have no sources but I've had a wolf spider on my leg (In Australia) that was at least the size of a huntsman if not bigger. It was probably 5 inches wide if you measure the legs. And from front to back it would've been 2-3 inches.--122.107.198.87 (talk) 09:55, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

 * It's possible. But you would have to have scholarly recognition of your find. If there is a member of the Lycosidae that large, it's hard to believe that none of the people in Australia who have spent their entire lives dedicated to the study of arachnids could have missed this species. P0M (talk) 06:24, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Photos
Wolf spider, Greenwood, Missouri photo seems pretty worthless. Any possibility of removal? 68.100.114.65 (talk) 05:23, 10 November 2014 (UTC)userrrrr

Jesus Christ, does this article need so many photos?! It's horrifying! Especially that "defending its burrow" one... More photos does not equal more information. - Lontano (talk) 16:10, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Oh come on put some photos! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.56.21.254 (talk) 19:43, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Spider in swimming pool
I live in Sun City, California and often find our WOLF SPIDERS swimming in the pool usually around late afternoon. They take their dip and while in the water eat their dinner from things floating atop the water. They are agile swimmers! (Smile). I read the description and read nothing about them being in swimming pools.

Thank you,

Rebecca Salgado Sun City California —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.67.222.133 (talk) 15:10, 5 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Without seeing these spiders it's difficult to be sure what they are or aren't. Wolf spiders typically do not do well in the water. Nor to they do well in bath tubs -- because once they fall in they cannot fall out.
 * There are some species of spiders that can actually swim underwater. They even build their shelters below the water surface. They occur in Europe, but not in the U.S.
 * There are some species of spiders that glide over the surface of the water. Their feet are supported on the water by surface tension. They move so rapidly that it seems impossible to catch one. They are not wolf spiders. I've never seen them anywhere except in ponds and still streams. A heavily chlorinated swimming pool would probably not be good for them. My guess is that they hole up in some nook when they are not out gliding around. Maybe they are capable of climbing the smooth surfaces that foil wolf spiders. P0M (talk) 21:34, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Hatchlings' access to abdomen
The article says the spiderlings climb onto the mother's abdomen by way of her legs. Has this been observed? Walking directly onto her abdomen from the egg sac would be easier. The wolf spiders I've observed (probably Pardosa sp.) have long legs, so that using them would make for a roundabout trip. In this photo, I think one little leg is visible at the front of the egg sac.

[URL=http://s641.photobucket.com/albums/uu134/OhLook/?action=view&current=WolfSpBabsECase.jpg][/URL]

Cognita (talk) 05:22, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

 * The mother spider may not have the egg sac attached at the time the baby spiders are released -- particularly if she has to open the sac for the little spiders. (I don't know of any published reports on how this happens.) I have seen accounts that when two mother spiders of the same species meet the babies all crawl off, the spiders fight, and all the babies climb onto the winner. I think that's in John Compton's Lives of the Spiders. If that is an accurate account, then crawling up the legs would make sense.  It seems unlikely that a dislodged spider would be picky about how it gets back aboard. I don't know where there is any very serious study of these matters. P0M (talk) 16:22, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

 * Well, okay. It's hard to imagine, though, how a double load of babies could fit on one mother's abdomen--my photos show them packed together for a "spaghetti and meatballs" look, until they're bigger and fewer--or what adaptive advantage this behavior might have.

Cognita (talk) 06:42, 28 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Last summer I noticed that my pasture was pretty well covered with burrows, so I dug one out and discovered a Geolycosid with babies. I had not expected them. I recall some of them having been dislodged. I remember that one of them was trying to crawl a rear leg and the mother spider was upset enough that she was not very willing to let it back on. She shook her leg as though trying to shake it off, but it made it anyway.

 * If I remember Compton's book correctly, the point seemed to be that to the baby spiders one mother was indistinguishable from the other. I don't know how much importance to attach to his report, however, because seeing such an encounter must be a once in a lifetime occurrence and who knows whether that was the usual behavior.

 * Bees will not accept bees from other colonies unless the two colonies are carefully "merged." The same goes for their accepting a new queen. The queen is introduced in a little screened box with a candy plug in the end. The theory is that the queen acquires the hive odor in the time it takes the worker bees to eat away the candy, and in the meantime they have already started to feed her through the screen. It is clear that bees would have to evolve some way of detecting robber bees from other colonies. Any hive that failed to detect freeloaders from other colonies could lose all its harvest. But there would be nothing I know of that would move spiders toward individual recognition.  P0M (talk) 07:46, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

File:Lycosidae female carrying young.jpg to appear as POTD soon
Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Lycosidae female carrying young.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on February 13, 2011. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2011-02-13. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks!  howcheng  {chat} 09:03, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Gallery
Gallery is to big, could be solved just with good quality photos. --PetarM (talk) 06:21, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

 * The image layout needs completely revising; it badly violates MOS:SANDWICH. Peter coxhead (talk) 08:44, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 21:52, 1 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Wolf Spider rpp.jpg

Activities
it stalks its prey 41.0.60.79 (talk) 17:57, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Not a wolf spider
there are multiple grass spiders in the gallery 2600:1015:B108:7544:312F:8F9C:C647:AB5A (talk) 17:39, 3 June 2023 (UTC)
 * By "grass spider" do you mean Agelenopsis? Peter coxhead (talk) 19:29, 3 June 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Wolf spider


text:
Lumbar

In tetrapod anatomy, lumbar is an adjective that means of or pertaining to the abdominal segment of the torso, between the diaphragm and the sacrum.

Naming and location
The lumbar region is sometimes referred to as the lower spine, or as an area of the back in its proximity.

In human anatomy the five lumbar vertebrae (vertebrae in the lumbar region of the back) are the largest and strongest in the movable part of the spinal column, and can be distinguished by the absence of a foramen in the transverse process, and by the absence of facets on the sides of the body. In most mammals, the lumbar region of the spine curves outward.

Description
The actual spinal cord terminates between vertebrae one and two of this series, called L1 and L2. The nervous tissue that extends below this point are individual strands that collectively form the cauda equina. In between each lumbar vertebra a nerve root exits, and these nerve roots come together again to form the largest single nerve in the human body, the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve runs through the back of each leg and into the feet. This is why a disorder of the low back that affects a nerve root, such as a spinal disc herniation, can cause pain that radiates along the sciatic nerve (sciatica) down into the foot.

Muscles
There are several muscles in the low back that assist with rotation, flexibility and strength. These muscles are susceptible to injury, especially while lifting heavy objects, or lifting while twisting. A low back muscle strain can be extremely painful but will usually heal within a few days or weeks.

Body weight burden
The lumbar portion of the spine bears the most body weight and also provides the most flexibility, a combination that makes it susceptible to injury and wear and tear over time. This is why low back pain is so prevalent.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Lumbar


text:
Margaret Floy Washburn

Margaret Floy Washburn (July 25, 1871 – October 29, 1939), was a leading American psychologist in the early 20th century, was best known for her experimental work in animal behavior and motor theory development. She was the first woman to be granted a PhD in psychology (1894); the second woman, after Mary Whiton Calkins, to serve as president of the American Psychological Association (1921); and the first woman elected to the Society of Experimental Psychologists. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Washburn as the 88th most cited psychologist of the 20th century, tied with John Garcia, James J. Gibson, David Rumelhart, Louis Leon Thurstone, and Robert S. Woodworth.

Biography
Born on July 25, 1871, in New York City, she was raised in Harlem by her father Francis, an Episcopal priest, and her mother, Elizabeth Floy, who came from a prosperous New York family. Her ancestors were of Dutch and English descent and were all in America before 1720. Washburn was an only child; she did not appear to have childhood companions her age and spent much of her time with adults or reading. She learned to read long before she started school; this caused her to advance quickly when she started school at age 7. In school, she learned French and German. When she was eleven years old, she started at public school for the first time. In 1886, she graduated from high school at the age of fifteen, and that fall, she entered Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, as a preparatory student. This preparatory status was due to her lack of Latin and French. During her undergraduate years at Vassar, Washburn developed a strong interest in philosophy through poetry and other literary works. She also became a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, and was first introduced to the field of psychology. After she graduated from Vassar in 1891, Washburn became determined to study under James McKeen Cattell in the newly established psychological laboratory at Columbia University. As Columbia had not yet admitted a woman graduate student, she was admitted only as an auditor. Despite the derogatory feelings toward women gaining education at the time, Cattell treated her as a normal student and became her first mentor. She attended his seminary, lectures, and worked in the laboratory alongside men. At the end of her first year of admission at Columbia, Cattell encouraged her to enter the newly organized Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University to obtain her Ph.D because this would not have been possible at Columbia as an auditor student. She was accepted in 1891 with a scholarship.

At Cornell, she studied under E. B. Titchener, his first and only major graduate student at that time. Her major was psychology. As a graduate student, she conducted an experimental study of the methods of equivalences in tactual perception, as was suggested by Titchener. After two semesters of experimental study, she subsequently earned her Master's degree in absentia from Vassar College in the late spring of 1893 for that work. During her work on the method of equivalents, Washburn had simultaneously developed the topic for her master’s thesis, which was done on the influence of visual imagery on judgments of tactual distance and direction. In June 1894, she gave her oral presentation, and became the first woman to receive a PhD in psychology (as Mary Calkins had previously been denied her PhD because she was a woman). She was also elected to the newly established American Psychological Association (APA). Her master's dissertation was also sent by Titchener to Wilhelm Wundt, who translated it and published it in his Philosophische Studien in 1895.

Following her graduation, Washburn was offered the chair of psychology, philosophy, and ethics at Wells College, in Aurora, New York. She accepted the offer and delighted in spending the next six years there. While she was there, she made sure to visit Cornell often to catch up with her friends and work in the laboratories. However, she then grew tired of the place, and sought a change. In the spring of 1900, Washburn received a telegram proposing her the warden's position at the Sage College of Cornell University. She accepted the offer and spent the next two years there. Washburn was then offered an assistant professorship of psychology at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio. This position also gave her full charge of the psychology department. She took the job, but only remained there for one school year before becoming homesick. While at Cincinnati, she was the only woman on the faculty.

In the spring of 1903, she gladly returned to Vassar College as Associate Professor of Philosophy, where she remained the rest of her life. When she started working there, she became the head of the newly founded psychology department. She treated her students well and in turn they appreciated her as a professor. A large number of her students continued to advance in the field of psychology after graduation. Washburn published many of her students' studies during her career. The students would collect and work with the data while she wrote up and published the experiments. Between 1905 and 1938, she published 68 studies from the Vassar Undergraduate Laboratory. These studies were the largest series of studies from any American university at the time. At one point, her students gifted her with a large sum of money and they wanted her to use the money for leisure. Instead, she used the money as scholarship aids for students in the psychology department.

She owned two cats, the first of which was named Hiram. When students would visit, Washburn would show off Hiram's tricks, such as jumping over a pencil. When Hiram died, Washburn purchased a cat in a New York City pet shop. That cat was angry and territorial, so much so that Washburn closed off more than one room in her house for the cat's sole use.

In 1921, Washburn gave her APA presidential address in which she discussed the importance of introspection as a legitimate method of inquisition. She believed that the rising of behaviorism in psychology was overshadowing the legitimacy of mental processes like consciousness and introspection.

In 1937, a stroke necessitated her retirement (as Emeritus Professor of Psychology). She never fully recovered and died at her home in Poughkeepsie, New York on October 29, 1939. She never married, choosing instead to devote herself to her career and the care of her parents.

Professional career
Washburn was a major figure in psychology in the United States in the first decades of the 20th century, substantially adding to the development of psychology as a science and a scholarly profession. She translated Wilhelm Wundt's Ethical Systems into English. Washburn used her experimental studies in animal behavior and cognition to present her idea that mental (not just behavioral) events are legitimate and important psychological areas for study in her book, The Animal Mind (1908). This, of course, went against the established doctrine in academic psychology that the mental was not observable and therefore not appropriate for serious scientific investigation.

Besides her experimental work, she read widely and drew on French and German experiments of higher mental processes stating they were intertwined with tentative physical movements (period). She viewed consciousness as an epiphenomenon of excitation and inhibition of motor discharge. She presented a complete motor theory in Movement and Mental Imagery (1916). During the 1920s she continued to amass experimental data from around the world to buttress her argument. She remained anchored in behaviorist tenets but continued to argue for the mind in this process. She took ideas from all major schools of thought in psychology, behaviorism, structuralism, functionalism, and Gestalt psychology, but rejected the more speculative theories of psychodynamics as being too ephemeral. In current psychology research, echoes of Washburn's insistence that behavior is part of thinking can be seen in dynamic systems approach that Thelen and Smith (1994) use to explain the development of cognition in humans.

Washburn's published writings span thirty-five years and include some 127 articles on many topics including spatial perception, memory, experimental aesthetics, individual differences, animal psychology, emotion and affective consciousness. At various times in her career, she was an editor for the American Journal of Psychology, Psychological Bulletin, Journal of Animal Behavior, Psychological Review, and Journal of Comparative Psychology. From 1909 to 1910 and later from 1925 to 1928 she served as the Representative of Psychology in the Division of Psychology and Anthropology of National Research. She became the 30th president of the APA in 1921, an honorific title at that time. Being president of the APA was one of her dreams growing up. In 1927, she was elected vice president and chairman of Section 1 (Psychology) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1929, she was elected to the International Committee of Psychology. Washburn was the first woman psychologist and the second woman scientist to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1931. The same year, she served as a United States Delegate to the International Congress of Psychology in Copenhagen.

The Animal Mind
Washburn's best-known work and, arguably, her most significant contribution to psychology was her influential textbook, The Animal Mind: A Textbook of Comparative Psychology. Originally published in 1908, this book compiled research on experimental work in animal psychology. Her range of literature was considerable, resulting in a bibliography of 476 titles in the 1st edition, which eventually grew to 1683 titles by the 4th edition. The Animal Mind covered a range of mental activities, beginning with the senses and perception, including hearing, vision, kinesthetic, and tactual sensation. The books' later chapter focused upon consciousness and higher mental processes. However, the dominant focus of the book is animal behavior. She focused on "the animal mind as deduced from experimental evidence". She also considered this phrase as being a more accurate title for her book.

A noteworthy feature is the diversity of animal species considered. In an era when animal research was dominated by rats, Washburn references, "not fewer than 100 species, including ants, bees, caterpillars, cats, chickens, chubs, clams, cockroaches, cows, crabs, crayfish, dogs, dragonflies, earthworms, elephants, flies, frogs, goldfish, grasshoppers, guinea pigs, horseshoe crabs, jellyfish, lancelets, leeches, mice, minnows, monkeys, pigeons, pike, planarians, potato beetles, raccoons, salamanders, sea anemones, sea-urchins, shrimps, silkworms, snails, spiders, tortoises, wasps, water beetles, and (yes) rats." Indeed, she devotes an entire chapter to the mind of the simplest animal, the amoeba.

Also noteworthy is her introductory chapters, which detailed methods of interpreting the results of animal research. Although she was cautious about attributing anthropomorphic meanings to animal behavior and realized that animal consciousness could never be directly measured, she opposed strict behaviorism's dismissal of consciousness and sought to comprehend as much as possible about animal mental phenomena. She suggested that animal psyches contained mental structures similar to that of humans and therefore suggested animal consciousness is not qualitatively different from human mental life. The greater the similarity in neuroanatomical structure and behavior between animals and humans, the more consciousness could be inferred. In her words:

"Our acquaintance with the mind of animals rests upon the same basis as our acquaintance with the mind of our fellow man: both are derived by inference from observed behavior. The actions of our fellow man resemble our own, and we therefore infer in them like subjective states to ours: the actions of animals resemble ours less completely, but the difference is one of degree, not of kind... We know not where consciousness begins in the animal world. We know where it surely resides—in ourselves; we know where it exists beyond a reasonable doubt—in those animals of structure resembling ours which rapidly adapt themselves to the lessons of experience. Beyond this point, for all we know, it may exist in simpler and simpler forms until we reach the very lowest of living beings." The Animal Mind went through several additions, in 1917, 1926, and 1936 and remained the standard textbook of comparative psychology for nearly 25 years, although about 80% of the material from the first edition was retained in subsequent editions. Compared to later editions, earlier editions extensively covered anecdotal evidence. A chapter on emotions was added to the 4th edition.

Motor theory
Washburn's motor theory attempted to find common ground between the structuralist tradition of her mentor, Titchener, which focused exclusively on consciousness and the rising view of behaviorism, which dismissed consciousness in favor of visible actions. Washburn's motor theory argued that all thought can be traced back to bodily movements. According to her theory, consciousness arises when a motion or a tendency towards movement is partially inhibited by a tendency towards another movement. In the presence of an object, the senses create an impression of it, including vision, sight, feel etc. This is accompanied by an incipient sense of movement, either towards or from the object. Different objects evoke different senses of motor readiness. When the object is not present, memory re-evokes those sensations. Learning consists of an association of movements into a set of regular series and combinations. When two movements become closely linked in quick succession, the sense of movement from the first primes the next, beginning a series. Ideas are organized the same way. Thinking becomes a derivative of movements of the hands, eyes, vocal cords, and trunk muscles (remember the thinker's pose). In summary:

"While consciousness exists and is not a form of movement, it has as its indispensable basis certain motor processes, and… the only sense in which we can explain conscious processes is by studying the laws governing these underlying motor phenomena".

Washburn presented this theory in several of her major works, including her early papers and in chapters she contributed to several collections, including Feelings and Emotions: The Wittenberg Symposium and Psychologies of 1930. However, it was most clearly outlined in what she considered her greatest work, Movement and Mental Imagery: Outlines of a Motor Theory of the Complexer Mental Processes.

title: Margaret Floy Washburn


text:
American studies

American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory.

Scholarship in American studies focuses on the United States. In the past decades, however, it has also broadened to include Atlantic history and interactions with countries across the globe. Subjects studied within the field are varied, but often examine the literary themes, histories of American communities, ideologies, or cultural productions. Examples might include topics in American social movements, literature, media, tourism, folklore, and intellectual history.

Fields studying specific American ethnic or racial groups are considered to be both independent of and included within the broader American studies discipline. This includes European American studies, African American studies, Latino studies, Asian American studies, American Indian studies, and others.

Founding notions
Vernon Louis Parrington is often cited as the founder of American studies for his three-volume Main Currents in American Thought, which combines the methodologies of literary criticism and historical research; it won the 1928 Pulitzer Prize. In the introduction to Main Currents in American Thought, Parrington described his field: "I have undertaken to give some account of the genesis and development in American letters of certain germinal ideas that have come to be reckoned traditionally American—how they came into being here, how they were opposed, and what influence they have exerted in determining the form and scope of our characteristic ideals and institutions. In pursuing such a task, I have chosen to follow the broad path of our political, economic, and social development, rather than the narrower belletristic."

The "broad path" that Parrington describes formed a scholastic course of study for Henry Nash Smith, who received a PhD from Harvard's interdisciplinary program in history and American civilization in 1940, setting an academic precedent for present-day American studies programs.

The first signature methodology of American studies was the "myth and symbol" approach, developed in such foundational texts as Henry Nash Smith's Virgin Land in 1950, John William Ward's Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age in 1955 and Leo Marx's The Machine in the Garden in 1964. Myth and symbol scholars claimed to find certain recurring themes throughout American texts that served to illuminate a unique American culture. Later scholars such as Annette Kolodny and Alan Trachtenberg re-imagined the myth and symbol approach in light of multicultural studies.

Beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, these earlier approaches were criticized for continuing to promote the idea of American exceptionalism—the notion that the US has had a special mission and virtue that makes it unique among nations. Several generations of American studies scholars moved away from purely ethnocentric views, emphasizing transnational issues surrounding race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality, among other topics. But recent studies critique the exceptionalist nature of the transnational turn. "The transnational turn has positioned American Studies in a nationalist rut", observes Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera, in After American Studies: Rethinking the Legacies of Transnational Exceptionalism: "In these transnational turns ... the unhyphenated-American phenomenon tends to have colonial characteristics: English-language texts and their authors are promoted as representative; a piece of cultural material may be understood as unhyphenated—and thus archetypal—only when authors meet certain demographic criteria; any deviation from these demographic or cultural prescriptions are subordinated to hyphenated status."

Institutionally, in the last decade the American Studies Association has reflected the interdisciplinary nature of the field, creating strong connections to ethnic studies, gender studies, cultural studies and post- or de-colonial studies. Environmental perspectives, in ascendance in related fields, such as literature and history, have not penetrated the mainstream of American studies scholarship. A major theme of the field in recent years has been internationalization—the recognition that much vital scholarship about the US and its relations to the wider global community has been and is being produced outside the United States.

Debate on use of the term American
Until the mid-2000s, the use of American for this multidisciplinary field was widely defended. In 1998, Janice Radway argued, "Does the perpetuation of the particular name, American, in the title of the field... support the notion that such a whole exists even in the face of powerful work that tends to question its presumed coherence? Does the field need to be reconfigured conceptually?" She concluded, "the name American studies will have to be retained." In 2001, Wai Chee Dimmock argued that the field "is largely founded on this fateful adjective. [American] governs the domain of inquiry we construct, the range of questions we entertain, the kind of evidence we take as significant. The very professionalism of the field rests on the integrity and the legitimacy of this founding concept." In 2002, Heinz Ickstadt argued that American studies "should accept its name as its limitation and its boundary." In 2006, Dimmock affirmed that the field "does stand to be classified apart, as a nameable and adducible unit."

More recently, scholars have questioned American as a categorizing term. "In consideration of the limitations of conventional terms," Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera argued in 2018, instead of American, terms like "spaces claimed by the political body" and "residents of spaces claimed by the political body" would offer a "more sensitive and attuned description... of the regions, critical artifacts, communities, and individuals in question, one that is less charged with the ambiguities and colonial ties that weigh down the traditional disciplinary nomenclatures." In "the interests of justice and along the lines most suitable to our emergent age," argued Markha Valenta in 2017, scholars should consider "abandoning America as the field identifier."

Imperial American studies
"One of the central themes of American historiography," argued William Appleman Williams, "is that there is no American Empire"" Contesting such assertions has been a central part of the Imperial Turn in the field. Amy Kaplan maintained that "an imperial unconscious of national identity" lead to "overseas expansion, conquest, conflict, and resistance which have shaped the cultures of the United States." More recently, scholars have examined how cultural imperialism occurs within the US borders. Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera described the phenomenon as an attempt to transition the "cultural symbols of the invading communities from 'foreign' to 'natural,' 'domestic,'" through three discrete and sequential phases:
 * {| class="wikitable"

 * People in new space
 * Objective
 * (1) Merchants
 * (1) Merchants

Also termed "explorers" e.g., Lewis and Clark
 * Encounter resources

E.g., minerals, trade routes, spices, furs, communities

to tax or conscript, fertile agricultural zones, strategic

geography, etc.
 * (2) Military
 * (2) Military

An invasion force
 * Control resources

Implement martial law so that the metropolitan may

exploit resources; establish "Fort" cities, e.g., Fort

Lauderdale, Fort Worth etc. that facilitate metropolitan

settlement.
 * (3) Politicians
 * (3) Politicians

Socialize the space into a new province of the metropolitan
 * Social engineering

Acculturize the space into a region of the metropolitan

through saturation of symbol, legend, and myth.

Establish laws and norms that promote the metropolitan

(invading system) as dominant culture and prohibit or

criminalize other systems; offer citizenship to conquered

peoples in exchange for submission to metropolitan

cultural norms and abandonment of original or other (in

the case of immigrants) social tendencies.
 * }
 * (Herlihy-Mera, Jeffrey. 2018. After American Studies: Rethinking the Legacies of Transnational Exceptionalism. Routledge. p. 24)

While the third phase continues "in perpetuity," the imperial appropriation tends to be "gradual, contested (and continues to be contested), and is by nature incomplete." The Americanization of the continent has been described as a cultural engineering project that strives to "isolate residents within constructed spheres of symbols" such that they (eventually, in some cases after several generations) abandon other cultures and identify with the new symbols. "The broader intended outcome of these interventions might be described as a common recognition of possession of the land itself."

Outside the United States
European centers for American studies include the British Association for American Studies, the Center for American Studies in Brussels, Belgium, and most notably the John F. Kennedy-Institute for North American Studies in Berlin, Germany. Other centers for American studies in Germany include the Bavarian America-Academy, the University of Munich, the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) and the Center for North American Studies (Zentrum für Nordamerikaforschung or ZENAF) at Goethe University Frankfurt. Graduate studies in the field of North American studies can also be undertaken at the University of Cologne, which works together in joint partnership with the North American studies program at the University of Bonn. American Studies Leipzig at the University of Leipzig is a center for American studies on the territory of former East Germany. Founded in 1992, the Center for American Studies at the University of Southern Denmark now offers a graduate program in American studies. In the Netherlands the University of Groningen and the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen offer a complete undergraduate and graduate program in American studies. The University of Amsterdam, the University of Leiden and the University of Utrecht only offer a graduate program in American studies. Both the University of Sussex and the University of Nottingham in England offer both a number of postgraduate and undergraduate programs. In Sweden, the Swedish Institute for North American Studies at Uppsala University offers a minor in American studies. In Slovakia, the University of Presov and Pavol Jozef Safarik University offer a complete undergraduate and graduate program in American studies combined with British studies. The Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library also offers a range of events and fellowships, as well as promoting the American collections held at the British Library.

Russia's main center for American studies is the Institute for US and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In the Middle East, the oldest American Studies program is the American Studies Center at the University of Bahrain in Sakhir which was founded in 1998. An American studies program is offered at the University of Tehran within the Faculty of World Studies.

In Oceania, the University of Canterbury in Christchurch New Zealand operated a full undergraduate and graduate American studies program until 2012, and in Australia, a postgraduate program in US Studies is run by the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.

In Canada, the University of Alberta has the Alberta Institute for American Studies. The University of Western Ontario has a Centre for American Studies that has both an undergraduate and master's program in American studies, with specializations at the graduate level in American Cultural Studies, and Canadian-American Relations. York University offers an undergraduate program in United States Studies.

American studies centers in China include the American Studies Center (Beijing Foreign Studies University) in 1979, the Institute of American Studies (Chinese Academy of Social Science) in 1981, Center for American Studies (Fudan University) in 1985, American Studies Center (Peking University) in 1980, Center for American Studies (Tongji University), American Studies Center (Sichuan University) in 1985, Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in 1986, American Social and Cultural Studies Center (China Foreign Affairs University) and Center for American Studies (East China Normal University) in 2004. These centers do not have undergraduate programs. Based on the requirement of the curriculum setup of the China Department of Education, these centers only have graduate programs. In addition, there are also scholarly journals, such as American Studies Quarterly and Fudan American Review.

In the Republic of Korea, Sogang University (Seoul, Korea) is the sole institution that offers regular degree program both in bachelor (BA) and master (MA) degree in American studies, named American culture. The American culture division is run by the Department of English along with English literature and linguistics. Keimyung University (Daegu, Korea), Hansung University (Seoul, Korea), Pyeongtaek University (Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do, Korea), Kyunghee University (Yongin, Gyonggi-do, Korea) also provide a major in American studies. Seoul National University (Seoul, Korea) and Yonsei University (Seoul, Korea) offers undergraduate interdisciplinary courses in American studies. The American Studies Association of Korea (ASAK) is one of the country's foremost research associations devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and society within the Korean context.

International American Studies Association
Founded at Bellagio, Italy, in 2000, the International American Studies Association has held World Congresses at Leyden (2003), Ottawa (2005), Lisbon (2007), Beijing (2009), Rio de Janeiro (2011), The Sixth World Congress of IASA at Szczecin, Poland, August 3–6, 2013, and Alcalá de Henares, Madrid (2019). The IASA is the only worldwide, independent, non-governmental association for Americanists. Furthering the international exchange of ideas and information among scholars from all nations and various disciplines who study and teach America regionally, hemispherically, nationally, and transnationally, IASA is registered in the Netherlands as a non-profit, international, educational organization with members in more than forty countries around the world.

Associations and scholarly journals
The American Studies Association was founded in 1950. It publishes American Quarterly, which has been the primary outlet of American studies scholarship since 1949. The second-largest American studies journal, American Studies, is sponsored by the Mid-America American Studies Association and University of Kansas. Today there are 55 American studies journals in 25 countries.

title: American studies


text:
Prasar Bharati

Prasar Bharati (abbreviated as PB; प्रसार भारती) is an Indian state-owned public broadcaster, headquartered in New Delhi, India. It is a statutory autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament and comprises the Doordarshan television broadcasting and Akashvani (formerly, All India Radio or AIR), which were earlier media units of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The Parliament of India passed the Prasar Bharati Act to grant this autonomy in 1990, but it was not enacted until 15 September 1997.

Navneet Kumar Sehgal, a retired bureaucrat, was appointed as the new Chairman of Prasar Bharati on 16 March 2024 as A. Surya Prakash finished his second term in February 2020. Prakash had succeeded Mrinal Pande. Gaurav Dwivedi is the CEO of Prasar Bharati (he succeeded Shashi Shekhar Vempati who was the CEO until June 2022).

The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021 said that DD News and All India Radio are the most trusted news brands in India.

Act
The Prasar Bharati Act provides for the establishment of a broadcasting corporation, to be known as Prasar Bharati, and define its composition, functions, and powers. The Act grants autonomy to All India Radio and to Doordarshan, both of which were previously under government control. The Act received the assent of the President of India on 12 September 1990 after being unanimously passed by Parliament. It was finally implemented in November 1997. By the Prasar Bharati Act, all property, assets, debts, liabilities, payments of money due, as well as all suits and legal proceedings involving Akashvani (All India Radio) and Doordarshan were transferred to Prasar Bharati.

The organization started as All India Radio (AIR) in the past and Doordarshan (DD) was born to cater television services later and finally came Prasar Bharati (PB) by enactment of an act by the parliament.

Composition
The Prasar Bharati Act vests the general superintendence, direction, and management of affairs of the Corporation in the Prasar Bharati Board which may exercise all such powers and do all such acts and things as may be exercised or done by the corporation.

The Prasar Bharati Board consists of:
 * Chairman
 * One Executive Member
 * One Member (Finance)
 * One Member (Personnel)
 * Six Part-time Members
 * Director-General (Akashvani), ex officio
 * Director-General (Doordarshan), ex officio
 * One representative of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), to be nominated by that Ministry and
 * Two representatives of the employees, of whom one shall be elected by the engineering staff from amongst themselves and one shall be elected by the other employee from amongst themselves.

The President of India appoints the chairman and the other Members, except the ex officio members, nominated member and the elected members. Board meetings must be held at least once in every three months each year.

Current members of Prasar Bharati board

 * Chairman – Navneet Kumar singhal
 * Chief Executive Officer – Gaurav Dwivedi
 * Member (Personnel) – Additional charge with CEO Gaurav Dwivedi
 * Member (Finance) – DPS Negi

Part-time members

 * Additional Secretary and Representative of Ministry of Information & Broadcasting – Ms. Neerja Sekhar
 * Ex Officio members – Vacant
 * Part-time member : Shaina NC, Alok Agrawal, Ashok Kumar Tandon, Sanjay Gupta

 * The Chairman is appointed by the President.
 * Member (Personnel) – Additional charge with CEO Gaurav Dwivedi
 * Ex-Officio Members – Vacant
 * Nominated Members – 2 Vacancies

Strategic interventions (2017 onwards)
In May 2020, Doordarshan and All India Radio began broadcasting weather reports on Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, and Gilgit in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in their prime time news bulletins. Pakistan had rejected this move by India, terming it as a "legally void" action to change the status of the region.

Reforms in public broadcasting in India (2017 onwards)
Obsolete technologies are being replaced with new technologies. Starting from 2017, more than 1200 old technology Analog Transmitters have been phased out and 23 Digital Transmitters have been installed at 19 locations across the country.

Transformation of Doordarshan (2017 onwards)
The footprint of Doordarshan has increased between 2017 and 2021. In 2017, the number of satellite channels stood at 23 as opposed to 36 in 2021.

Timeline of ATT Phase out and Resource rationalisation:

Transformation of All India Radio (2017 onwards)
From 413 in 2017, the number of All India Radio stations has gone up to 485 in 2021. All India Radio's FM stations are now reaching 70 percent of the Indian population. As part of Prasar Bharati's drive to phase out obsolete technologies, the number of Short Wave and Medium Wave stations has come down from 48 to 12 and 148 to 128 respectively between 2017 and 2021.

Digital Growth since 2017
Since 2017, Prasar Bharati has shifted its focus to digital first which has rendered promising results with a digital network spread across more than 300 Twitter handles, 190 YouTube channels, multiple news websites and NewsOnAir App with more than two million downloads. The digital network viewership growth has witnessed a 66% rise since 2017. Now Digital has become integral to all Prasar Bharati activities with daily 800+ digital uploads happening across the network, so that all in-house produced news and non-news content is available for on-demand consumption on digital platforms. NewsOnAir App has been a game-changer with 270+ radio and TV live-streams.

Between 2017 and 2022, Prasar Bharati's digital platforms across the country have together written a brilliant growth story with many of its YouTube channels already in the Million club and multiple others inching closer to the milestone, together taking the current total YouTube subscription base to more than two crores. In 2021, more than 185 YouTube channels of Doordarshan and All India Radio together registered more than a billion views. Their ‘watch time’ for the entire duration of 2021 summed up to a figure of 94 Million Hours. YouTube channels of both DD News and DD National crossed 4 Million Subscribers in 2021. Prasar Bharati's App NewsOnAir clocked a listenership of 214 Million+ in 2021. Prasar Bharati's digital platforms in the remotest areas of Northeast registered significant milestones in 2021, by together clocking more than 220 Million Views and 1 Million+ Subscribers on YouTube.

Archives – Preserving India’s History and Culture
Prasar Bharati's National Archives, India's oldest and biggest audio-visual Archives, has an exclusive collection of rare recordings of historical value – interviews, documentaries, features, music, radio plays, etc. It is a treasure trove of not only the memorable performances of the great artistes, who have contributed to India's rich cultural, music and dance heritage but also a collection of rare media assets related to important events like Independence Day celebrations, Republic Day Parades, address to the nation by Prime Ministers, Presidents etc. as well as other important broadcasts since the advent of broadcasting in our country. These rare assets are in the form of sound recordings and audio visual footage in all genres like music, dance, drama, interviews, short films, documentaries, feature films etc.

Archival activities started in the form of Transcription Service of Radio recordings on 3 April 1954, with transcription of speeches of all dignitaries, especially the presidents and prime ministers of India. Though informal archiving had been there in the country before 1954, setting up of transcription service converted it into an organized activity. Doordarshan Archives was established in 2004 with an objective to digitize and preserve the valuable audio-visual footages. Initially the archival setups in AIR and Doordarshan grew separately under their respective verticals. In 2018, these separate setups were combined and brought under a common umbrella as a new vertical ‘Prasar Bharati Archives’.

Radio Autobiographies are one of the unique collections in the Archives of Prasar Bharati, wherein audio autobiography of eminent personalities who have made invaluable contributions in different fields of nation-building is recorded. Besides being anecdotal about the lives and works of the personalities, these Radio Autobiographies also chronicle the contemporary history of India narrated through the life's journey of these eminent personalities.

In his Radio Autobiography recorded by All India Radio in 1986, India's then leading Industrialist and former Chairman of Tata Group Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata recalls his memories of the Emergency era, his conversations with Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi on the excesses during the Emergency. Recollecting one of his interactions with Indira Gandhi in the beginning of Emergency, JRD Tata said, “When she declared Emergency, I went to see her. I said, Indira ji, why did you have to put all these people in jail including old people like Morarji Desai. She said, because they were plotting against me. I can't have people against me from within.”

In an interaction with All India Radio in January 1986, Sahitya Akademi Award winner and renowned poet Amrita Pritam said that in popular culture, people count Hinduism as one of the religions along with Islam, Christianity, etc. But in reality, Hinduism is not a religion. Everyone born in Hindustan is a Hindu.

This treasure trove is being digitized and made available on Prasar Bharati Archives YouTube channel in public interest for academic purposes. Apart from the content mentioned above, audio of around 50 original Constituent Assembly Speeches from 1946–1949 have been uploaded on this YouTube channel.

Priceless recordings of the likes of maestros Ustad Bismillah Khan, MS Subbulakshmi, Begum Akhtar, M Balamuralikrishna and the epic Ramcharitmanas, among others are part of Prasar Bharati archives and are available on the counter at Akashwani Bhawan on Parliament Street in Delhi.

Prasar Bharati Archives has contributed significantly to PradhanMantri Sangrahalaya, inaugurated by PM Modi on 14 April 2022, providing about 206 hours of audio and 53 hours of video content. This includes Address to Constituent Assembly (Tryst with Destiny), Broadcast to the Nation on 1st Independence Day, Oath-taking ceremony, Inauguration of Atomic Energy Establishment and Opening of the 1st Atomic Reactor, Declaration of Emergency, Address to the UN General Assembly, Non-Aligned Conference, Inauguration of Delhi Metro and much more.

From among the rare audio-video content of historical, political and cultural significance available in Prasar Bharati Archives, we have created decade-wise YouTube playlists of such content starting from 1930s till 2000s.

Controversies
In 2010, as many as 24 candidates out of the 30 selected for the posts of journalists in Doordarshan News were alleged to have been appointed on the basis of political considerations. For example, one of the successful candidates was closely related to a former Congress Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, another successful candidate was the daughter of a sitting Congress Union minister, and a third was a close relative of Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma.

The number of applicants called for interview was increased from 25 to 35 to accommodate the daughter of a Congress politician, who held the 33rd rank, and would have otherwise been eliminated at the cut-off stage. Another successful candidate, Anika Kalra Kalha, was not even called for an audition and reporting skills test, and the remark in the relevant columns read “Did not qualify for this stage”. Similarly, the weightage given to interviews was arbitrarily increased two days before they were held.

In 2014, over allegations of DD editing out portions of interview of the then BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi, then Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar had admitted that some parts of the interview "were apparently edited" and pointed a finger at then I&B Minister Manish Tewari for failing to grant the "operational autonomy" that the public broadcaster had been seeking for years.

In August 2017, then Tripura CM Manik Sarkar alleged that Doordarshan and All India Radio had refused to broadcast his Independence Day speech unless he reworked it.

In September 2017, following instructions from the ministry of information and broadcasting, Doordarshan had put on hold prime time slots auctioned to Ekta Kapoor's Balaji Telefilms and Saaibaba Telefilms.

Fake offer/appointment letters for jobs at Prasar Bharati's DD Kisan channel were given by scamsters on fake letter heads of DD Kisan.

In September 2017, following a complaint of alleged abuse of dominance with regard to infrastructural facilities for FM radio broadcasting, Competition Commission ordered a fresh investigation against Prasar Bharati.

In March 2018, then Prasar Bharati Chairman Dr. A Surya Prakash said that the I&B Ministry had been refusing funds to Prasar Bharati since December 2017 and that the funds for the month of January and February were drawn from the broadcaster's contingency funds to pay its employees’ salaries.

In early 2019, Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry floated a draft Bill ‘Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Amendment Bill, 2019’, which would have given Ministry the power to appoint Director Generals of Doordarshan and All India Radio directly, instead of the then practice of recruitment of DGs through Prasar Bharati Board. The Bill sought to remove the provision to establish a recruitment board ‘Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board’ (PBRB). According to the explanatory note of the draft Bill, “As per Section 9 of the Prasar Bharati Act, officers and employees of the public broadcaster were to be appointed in ‘consultation’ with the Recruitment Board, which was to be established as per Section 10 of the Act. However, the Prasar Bharati Recruitment Board (PBRB) could not be established due to one or another reason” and the ministry has now decided “not to establish PBRB” and remove the relevant section of the Act which empowered Prasar Bharati to set up recruitment boards.” Soon after, the notification seeking public feedback on the draft Bill was removed from the Ministry’s website, and another notice was issued which said that “the matter has been kept in abeyance till further orders”.

In April 2019, then Congress President Rahul Gandhi's office did not respond to Prasar Bharati CEO's request for Gandhi's interview by DD News. Earlier that month, Congress had submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission with allegations of bias in the political coverage by the public broadcaster.

In October 2019, Prasar Bharati suspended a Chennai Doordarshan Kendra official citing "disciplinary proceedings". According to media reports, Doordarshan Kendra assistant director R Vasumathi had allegedly blocked the telecast of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech at IIT Madras.

In March 2020, Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati turned down BBC invite for an awards function, alleging that the BBC did “one-sided” reporting on Delhi violence in February 2020. In his letter to BBC Director General, Vempati said, “I must respectfully decline the invitation in view of the recent coverage of the BBC of certain incidents of violence in Delhi.”

In February 2021, Twitter blocked the account of Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati for using a hashtag which was deemed inappropriate by the government. BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who chairs the Parliamentary Committee on Data Protection Bill, condemned blocking of Prasar Bharati CEO's account, saying that Twitter has "victimised the person who told you to take the right step”. The account was restored later in the day.

In October 2021, a few media reports alleged that Prasar Bharati is shutting down transmission from DD Kalaburagi and DD Silchar. Taking note of these reports, Prasar Bharati clarified that broadcast reform steps to phase out obsolete analog terrestrial TV transmitters was being misrepresented. That these DD Centres will continue to generate program content for broadcasting on the satellite channels of Doordarshan dedicated to their respective States, apart from maintaining their presence on digital media via YouTube and on social media. For instance, program content generated by DD Silchar and DD Kalaburagi shall now be broadcast on DD Assam and DD Chandana respectively.

title: Prasar Bharati


text:
Guinea (disambiguation)

Guinea (Guinée, in French) or Guinea-Conakry is a republic in West Africa, independent since 1958.

Guinea may also refer to:

Nations

 * Equatorial Guinea, a country in Central Africa, formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea
 * Guinea-Bissau, a country in West Africa, formerly the colony of Portuguese Guinea

Regions

 * Guinea (region), a region in West Africa
 * Guinea Highlands, a forested mountain plateau in the Guinea region
 * Guinean forest-savanna mosaic, an ecoregion of West Africa
 * Upper Guinean forests, a tropical moist forest region of West Africa
 * Middle Guinea, a region in the central part of the Republic of Guinea
 * Lower Guinean forests, a coastal forest region in the Guinea region
 * Gulf of Guinea, a gulf of the Atlantic Ocean off West African coast, south of Nigeria and west of Cameroon
 * Upper Guinea historical name for the north coast of the gulf
 * Lower Guinea, a historical name for the east coast of the gulf

Historical

 * Danish Guinea, another name for Danish Gold Coast, a former colony in what is now Ghana, West Africa
 * French Guinea, a former colony in West Africa, what is now Guinea
 * Portuguese Guinea, a former colony in West Africa, what is now Guinea-Bissau
 * Spanish Guinea, a former colony in West Africa, what is now Equatorial Guinea
 * Swedish Guinea, another name for Swedish Gold Coast, a former colony in what is now Ghana, West Africa

Oceania

 * New Guinea (Papua Island), a large island in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific
 * Papua New Guinea, a nation occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and adjacent islands
 * British Guinea, or British New Guinea, another name for the Territory of Papua, a former colony in what is now Papua New Guinea
 * German New Guinea, a former colony in what is now Papua New Guinea
 * Western New Guinea, the western half of New Guinea which forms a part of Indonesia
 * West Papua (province), Indonesian province formed in early 2000's
 * Papua (province), Indonesian province formed in early 2000's
 * Dutch New Guinea, also known as Netherlands New Guinea, a former Dutch colony in what is now Indonesian Papua
 * Republic of West Papua, proposed state
 * Irian Jaya, Indonesian province formed in 1969 following the West New Guinea dispute
 * Papua (disambiguation)

Places in North America

 * Guinea, Nova Scotia a community in Nova Scotia, Canada
 * Guinea, a region of Gloucester County, Virginia, United States
 * Guinea, Virginia, an unincorporated community in Caroline County, Virginia
 * Nueva Guinea, a town in Nicaragua

Currency

 * Guinea (coin), a former British coin and currency unit
 * Egyptian pound (Egyptian Arabic Genēh Maṣri), genēh is pronounced like the English word guinea

Surname

 * Cristina Guinea (born 1992), field hockey midfielder
 * Emilio Guinea (1907–1985), Spanish botanist

Animals

 * Guinea (wasp), a wasp genus in the subfamily Pteromalinae
 * Guinea baboon, Papio papio, a species of baboon
 * Guinea pig, a genus of rodents
 * Guinea snout-burrower, a species of frog
 * Guinea worm, parasitic worm native to parts of Africa
 * Guineafowl, four genera of chicken-like birds in the family Numididae

Other uses

 * Aikea-Guinea, 1985 single by the Cocteau Twins
 * "Guinea", an English-language offensive term for someone of Italian descent
 * "Guineas", a former term (now considered pejorative) for the Chestnut Ridge people of West Virginia
 * The 1000 Guineas or 2000 Guineas British horse races run at Newmarket

title: Guinea (disambiguation)