Volker W. Framenau

Wolf spiders (family Lycosidae) dominate the Australian spider fauna in diversity and local abundance and have by far the highest specimen numbers of spiders present in museum collections. With 42 described species, the genus Artoria represents the most speciose genus of all Australian lycosids although some morphological characters suggest that the genus consists of multiple lineages each deserving genus status. This project will describe an estimated 150 undescribed species of Artoria through regional taxonomic revisions and will test the monophyly of the genus developing a detailed molecular phylogeny of the subfamily Artoriinae.