& rr ws ba A ie e Sean e Se A. . 3 PAs? f ‘ ie 5 - . 7 . age ‘ik < * + 5 k he * " : i a wy . 7 P., a> ane J or so... ~~ we ‘ait. “ ‘ oe ee . VY: Ap. ly Ci ay: *s Pee bak . hs ae vag i Pe ‘By)..4 Ser TATRA, og Ge 4s Ay Are Se by i, » g Ct Alc GM: ty CB at ab » ae Da am MD |, BA a ates 7 BART tis LAB ty Nak te PN a Gee: | oe wn \ fh 4 i, oat Wt ts i. mi se > a ¥ ge hi i en Ne. fear * ee! Ly, cre | ue’ the Internet Archive ith funding from itn a Sa: f= 5 win —.—* a, a4 SS * ee =, a PROF. NICHOLAS MARCELLUS HENTZ, The Father of American Araneology. AMERICAN SPIDERS ‘HRI SPINNINGWORK. < = Bm a ome A NATURAL HISTORY i. : a. x OF TEE 7) «—- SPPHAVING SPIDERS OF THE UNITED STATES $y RO) AUROUAL HEGARD TO THEIR INDUSTRY AND HABITS. ee » Ei _ HENRY ©. McOOOK, D.D, | o ete Acapruy of Narveas. Somes op PurLspeirasa; > Prormaee of Exromenocy in vam Penxsyivania a i es p , Kg “ye ‘ i‘: 7 a oe - ~~ an k ‘ el —_ -, — ee, ee Baie 5 J . = a o lil. > a AMERICAN SPIDERS THEIR SPINNINGWORK. A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE ORBWEAVING SPIDERS OF THE UNITED STATES WITH SPECIAL REGARD TO THEIR INDUSTRY AND HABITS. BY HENRY OC. McCOOK, D.D., VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA; PROFESSOR OF ENTOMOLOGY IN THE PENNSYLVANIA HORTICULTURAL Socrery, 7) VOL. III. WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF ORBWEAVING SPECIES AND PLATES. PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA, A. D. 1893. AUTHOR’S EDITION. This Edition is limited to Two Hunprep anp Firry copies, of which this set is THE PRESS OF ALLEN, LANE & SCOTT, PHILADELPHIA, THESE STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY ARE DEDICATED TO THE VENERATED MEMORY OF MY FATHER, JOHN McCOOK, M. D., , A LOVER OF NATURE, A FRIEND OF SCIENCE, “¢ a A GOOD PHYSICIAN, A SERVANT OF ; HIS FELLOW MEN, i WHOSE FAITH IN THE UNSEEN NEVER FALTERED. 52 eo : . - La Ps : ’ i = a a, we De » ie +p oe es : AS 4 4 ee . Tam ae : ‘ fe a ~- ~ Peas Pee eo . . t i «x ’ = , _— - . , > > “" - 2 ‘ 1 - « ua v 4 * nl i > “ ’ ~ oa x. 7 « Ve me 5 —- d Vey = ¢ ia su o~ a -— » ” —_ ~~ PREFACE. Wiru profound satisfaction the author gives to the scientific public the third and last volume of a work which has engaged his thoughts for more a than twenty years. That he has been permitted to finish a labor oe prolonged throughout so great a period, and wrought upon amidst the many duties and burdens of a busy professional career, excites earnest gratitude. The fear that he might not finish his self im- posed task, and thus leave an incomplete work, has caused sore anxiety, especially when, at sundry times, more or less serious illness has commanded pause. Happily this apprehension is now dismissed, and the duty at last ended is herewith submitted to the judgment of fellow workers in and lovers of Natural History. In the first part of the volume six chapters are taken to consider various natural habits and physiological problems for which there was no space in the two previous volumes, These topics are in the line of those poe studies in Gicology to which the author has heretofore especially aan. given his attention. In addition thereto, and forming indeed the bulk of this volume, the second part thereof contains descriptions of many indigenous species of Orbweavers, illustrated by thirty litho- graphic plates, colored by hand from Nature. Most of these plates are of Orbweavers, the group to which the author has given special syste- matic study. But two plates are added, without descriptions attached thereto, of representative species of the other aranead groups, especially of those species whose habits have been presented in the foregoing volumes. This descriptive work has been thought necessary to complete studies which avowedly chiefly concerned habits and industry. The general forms, colors, and proportions of spiders as they present themselves to an obser- ver’s eye in Nature are important to the accurate understanding of their habits. One cannot appreciate in full the role which these creatures have ‘to play in Nature until he have a just conception of how they look in the midst of the scenes wherein their life energies are spent. For this reason it formed part of the author’s original purpose to present the sub- jects of his study as they appear in natural site, that his readers may have acquaintance not only with their life history but with themselves. Moreover, in studying the habits of spiders it has been necessary to identify the species, and in many cases to describe them. It has seemed (5) 6 PREFACE, proper, therefore, that the work thus done should be preserved to science in connection with the descriptions of the animals’ life history. But the author has to admit that this part of his work grew in his hands far beyond the bounds of his first intent, and finally shaped itself into the resolve to publish descriptions and plates not only of the Orbweayvers whose habits he had described, but of all accessible American species of that group. In this matter he has been led along step by step, adding species to species, page to page, and plate to plate, by a desire to make his work yet more and more complete. Working naturalists, at least, will sympathize with and appreciate this fact. This descriptive work has made the closing volume in many respects the most difficult one of the series. To one who has to deal with small : animals, scientific description. is always a laborious service. resi! When it is impossible to mount these animals in any satisfac- Week tory way, as is the case with spiders, and one is compelled to : labor with alcoholic specimens, many of which are minute and mutilated, and often with unique examples in hand which may not be broken up for convenient study, the ordinary difficulties are much in- creased. Nevertheless, the work has not been an unpleasant one; for there is a fascination about studies in classification which every true naturalist has felt. Dry and uninteresting as the details usually are to the general public, to the specialist they have peculiar interest. The comparison of species with species and genus with genus; the task of separating on this side and on that; of solving the numerous problems that are constantly arising, and other duties of a like kind, bring into play some of the most pleasing faculties of the intellect, and contribute largely to the enjoyment of the systematic naturalist. Nevertheless, to one who can only labor at odd hours, and who is thus apt to lose the connection established by long and careful comparisons, the pleasure is much marred. This has been the author’s estate, and will add to the satisfaction which he will feel should it be judged that he has wrought with reasonable accuracy. In this connection it is proper to say that the increased cost of printing text and plates made it necessary two years ago to notify the public that the original price of ten dollars per volume, or thirty dollars rag i? for the entire set, including plates, must be increased to fifty * dollars the set. All subscribers at the original price will be served with Volume III. without additional charge, but others must pay- the advanced price. The author feels compelled to make this statement here in order to relieve himself from the painful duty of refusing requests, of which some have already come, to sell the work at the first named price. Even at the price now named, subscribers will receive the work at less than its actual cost; a statement which is made not in the way of complaint, for which there is no reason at all; nor to excite sympathy, which is neither required nor desired, but to give a plain and honest reason for a Growth of the Work. i | ee i aS — ————— ——= PREFACE. 7 change which ought to be explained. For further business notice those interested therein are referred to the advertisement at the close of the book. The most agreeable part of a preface to an author is his acknowledgment for kindly aid rendered by colaborers and friends. First of all, I express my gratitude to Dr. George Marx, of Washington, for the friendly and Personal ‘ : : Than! valuable service which he has given me throughout many years. With a rare generosity and singleness of eye to the advancement of science, he placed at my disposal the Orbweavers in his notable collection. Not only so, but on all occasions he has cheerfully and freely given me the benefit of his advice and judgment. He has thus laid under lasting obliga- tion, not only the author, but all who are interested in his work. I have also to thank others, in different parts of the country, who have contributed specimens and information. Among these are Professor and Mrs. Georgé W. Peckham, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, whose joint studies of the Attide have given to Araneology some of its most attractive and valuable chapters. Messrs. Orcutt, Davidson, and Blaisdell, and the late Mr. John Curtis, of California; Miss Rosa Smith, now Mrs. Eigenmann, and her mother, Mrs. Louisa Smith, of San Diego,°California; Professor Orson Howard, of Utah, Mr. Thomas Gentry, of Philadelphia, and Messrs. Charles H. Townsend and Nathan Banks, of Washington, have contributed material that has entered into this work. Among European naturalists I am indebted to Mr. F. M. Campbell, of Herts, England, for many courtesies; Mr. Thomas Workman, of Belfast, Ireland, and Mr. Frederick Enock, of London, have sent me specimens. To Professor Waldemar Wagner, of Moscow, Russia, and Mr. Eugene Simon, of Paris, I am especially indebted for copies of their valu- able papers and books, and for permission to engrave and use some of the figures with which they are illustrated. To the veteran araneologist, Pro- fessor Tamerlane Thorell, whom I gladly acknowledge as “ magister,” I am indebted for advice from time to time rendered. I add an expression of my obligations to one who, unhappily for the in- terests of Science, no longer lives to prosecute his faithful and distinguished labors, the late Count Keyserling, of Germany. His descriptions of American Spiders have been of great service in determining indigenous species, and many specimens personally examined and identified by him have passed through my hands in the course of these studies. The posthumous volume of his noble work, “Die Spinnen Amerikas,” Part IV., edited by Dr. Marx, and which relates to the Epeiride, was not issued until a large part of my descriptions were already in print. For this reason some species here appear as new which are described by him in his last work, and have priority, inasmuch as their publication antedates my own. The names, how- ever, are the same, inasmuch as the specific titles given in litteris by Count Keyserling to the examples in Dr. Marx’ collection have been preserved by me. These discrepancies I have corrected as far as possible in the plate titles. , 8 PREFACE. I count it a duty as well as a pleasure to place among the number of those entitled to my public thanks the name of Miss Elizabeth F. Bonsall, who has made the original drawings for nearly all the plates contained in the atlas. Her faithful and successful work has not always been correctly reproduced by lithographers and colorists, but for the most part it speaks for itself in the admirable rendering from life of the species which she has figured. As the frontispiece of this volume I have printed a portrait of Professor Nicholas Marcellus Hentz, M. D., who may justly be regarded as the father of American Araneology. John Abbot was indeed before him in Professor hb sonal studies in South Carolina and Georgia of our American Spider fauna. The results of these studies remain in the descriptions of Walckenaer and in the beautiful manuscript drawings now preserved in the Library of the British Museum of Natural History in Kensington, London, and to which fuller reference is made in the pages. which follow. Some interesting notes upon the life of Professor Hentz, written by the late Mr. Edward Burgess, may be found in the preface to “The Spiders of the United States,” published by the Boston Society of Natural History. I am indebted to Professor Henshaw, the Secretary of that Society, for a photograph of the likeness from which the phototype plate of Professor Hentz. has been made. It has been reproduced as faithfully as the age and condition of the original photograph would allow. In reviewing this book it falls out as a matter of course that I note imper- fections therein. Most of these, it may be said in all fairness, are due to the peculiar circumstances under which the work has been wrought. Some of the plates were finished, printed, and even colored, awaiting their place in the volume, as many as ten years ago. In the progress of study my views of certain species were modified, thus compelling some modification of the printed results. But this, as expressed in the plates, could not be done without rejecting and remaking the plates, a loss I did not feel it necessary to bear. Corrections and modifications have therefore been made in the text and in the plate descriptions, and no practical disadvantage need be felt by the student. Moreover, the detached manner in which all my work has been done, taking an hour here and there, or a week or so from a summer vacation, and the inabil- ity, because of professional obligations, to give close and connected over- sight to the work of artists, lithographers, copyists, and colorists has resulted in some blunders which have indeed been easily corrected in the text, and would attract but little attention from the ordinary observer, but which none the less to an author are a blemish upon his work. Nevertheless, the author has at least the satisfaction of believing that he has honestly, faithfully, and impartially endeavored to meet every ques- tion, whether in the life habits or classification of spiders, to which he has Errors and Blemishes. the field, and during the early part of this century made per- PREFACE. 9 directed his attention. He indulges the hope that he may at least have cleared the way for others to follow, in a field where the difficulties are undeniably great, but where the rewards to an earnest seeker The ,. after Nature’s secret ways are abundant. They are had not only Sia in the gratification of such pleasant toil, and in the conscious- orks. if 7 : ness of having added to human knowledge and enjoyment, but in the higher satisfaction of having contributed somewhat to man’s knowl- edge of the works of his Creator. The author would count himself faithless to truth as well as to duty were he not to add that the last named consideration has been to him a continuous stimulus and support. He believes thoroughly in Author’s that view of Divine Providence taught him by beloved parents Sa in his childhood which makes it to be God’s “most wise and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures and all : their actions.” The smallest creatures and the lowliest adventures of their . humble lives are within the care of the Good Father of all, the Lord of spiders as well as the God of men. To bring all knowledge uncovered from the secret places of the natural world, and lay it devoutly before the world’s Creator as a tribute of worship and a token of spiritual fellowship, has been the chief motive which has urged the author to, has guided him - through, and sustained him in, this work of twenty years, now happily ended. H. C. McC. Tue Manse, Pumapeirura, Jury 3d, A. D. 1894. 1} oer Pre a } TABLE OF CONTENTS OF VOLUME III, PART IL—GENERAL HABITS, BIOLOGICAL MISCELLANY, AND ANATOMICAL NOMENCLATURE. CHAPTER I. TOILET, DRINKING, BURROWING, AND SOCIAL HABITS. PAGES Toilet Habits of Spiders—Toilet Implements—Hair Dressing the Feet—Combing and Washing the Head—Tarantula’s Toilet—Toilet Habits compared with Ants— Argiope Cleansing her Feet—Tidy Housekeeping—Cleaying away Rubbish—Eating the Web—Penalty of Untidiness—Shamrock Spider—Purseweb Spider—Drinking Habits—Tarantula Drinking—Zillas Drinking—Feeding Habits—Dolomedes—Water Habits—Rafting Spiders—Long Submergence—Burrowing Methods—Lycosa Ti- grina—Maternal Ingenuity—Lycosa—Turret Spider’s Building—Flinging Dirt Pellets—Secretiveness— Tunnel of Atypus—Tunnels of Mygalidee — Tarantula Digging her Burrow—Carrying Dirt—California Trapdoor Spiders— Repairing Doors—Branch Nests—Site Mimicry of Cteniza Californica—Tarantula opifex— Professor Wagner, of Moscow— Trapdoor Making Lycosid —Territelarian Archi- tecture—Lycosid Architecture—Comparative Views of Industrial Habits—Young Spiders—Baby Communities—M. Eugene Simon’s Discoveries—Incubating Nest— Sociable Epeiras—Cocooning suspends Pugnacity—Mothers with many Cocoons— Social Theridioids—Tenting Commons of Spiderlings—Uloborus Republicanus— Guarding Cocoons—Orbweaving Neighborhoods—Gregarious Saltigrades. . . . . 15-43 CHAPTER II. MEMORY, MIMICRY, AND PARASITISM. Intelligence and Memory—Cotton Utilized for Doors—Turret Spiders—Memory of Epeira Trifolium—Sense of Location—Insect Memory—Color Mimicry—Mimicry of Bird Excreta—Ornithoscatoides decipiens of Cambridge—Anthropomorphism— Evolution of Mimicry—Method of Ovipositing—A Parasitic Larva—John L. Curtis—The Dictyna Parasite—Parasite on Epeira strix—Parasites in Cocoons— Egg Parasites—Mr. Howard’s Studies of Hymenopterous Parasites—Table of Para- sites and Parasitized Spiders—Generalizations—Relations of Spinning Habits to Parasitism—Cocooning Habit and Parasitism ............-.++:+5 44-62 CHAPTER III. BIOLOGICAL MISCELLANY. Spider Enemies—Wasps Pursuing Spiders—Tube Making Orbweavers—Sitting in the Hub—Fish Killing Spiders—Counterpoise in Web Weaving—Spider Poison—Pro- fessor Bertkau’s Experience—Tigrina’s Courtship—Mending Snares—Nocturnal and Diurnal Spiders—A Wind Wrecked Web—Mending Foundation Lines—Patching Tubeweavers—Trapdoor Spiders—Intelligence in Locating Nest—Mode of Enter- ing Nest—Mimicry of Site—The Tarantula Hawk—Enemies Influencing Architec- PION U = DADY SpIGETE 66 oF 522 Re heels Rae ea ee LA 63-76 12 TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. WEATHER PROGNOSTICATIONS, SUNDRY SUPERSTITIONS, COMMERCIAL VALUE OF SPIDER SILK, PAGES Weather Prognostication—Stories and Traditions—The Popular Notion— Notes of Weather and Webs—Orbweavers no Weather Prophets—Spider Superstitions— Money Spinners—Luck in Seeing Spiders—Spider Silk in Industrial Art—Sources of Spider Silk—M. Bon’s Pioneer Attempts—Reaumur’s Results—Abbe Termeyer’s Experiments—Reeling Silk from Spiders—Professor Wilder’s Experiments—Nephila as a Silk Producer—An Englishman’s Attempt ..........4..++4+e-. 77-89 CHAPTER V. MOULTING HABITS OF SPIDERS. Moulting of Young—Cannibalism—Young Epeiras—Mode of Moulting—Baby Congre- - gations — Young Turret Spiders— Young Dolomedes— Theridioids — Manner of Moulting —Orbweavers’ Moulting— After the Moult—Argiope’s Moulting—Liny- phia—Medicinal Spider—Lycosids—Tarantula—Periodicity of Moulting—Modifying Agents—Effect of Insect Stings—Protective Habits—Facility in Moulting—Moulting | Dangers—Limbs Lost in Moulting—Effect of Nourishment—Color Changes—Change . in Males—Peckham’s Studies of Attidee—Laterigrades—Change in Tarantulas— Summary — Periodicity of Moulting— Physiological Moulting Changes— Forming New Skin—Professor Wagner’s Studies—Blood—Moulting of Hairs—Origin of New Hairs—Poison Gland—Abdominal Muscles—Legs—Spinning Organs—Summary . . 90-115 CHAPTER VI. REGENERATION OF LOST ORGANS AND ANATOMICAL NOMENCLATURE. Renewal of Lost Organs—Dr. Heineken’s Observations—Wagner’s Work—Lost Limbs— Imperfect Reproduction—The Huntsman Spider—Periodicity of Regeneration— Atrophy of Old Tissues—Formation of Cicatrix—Red Blood Cells—Atrophy of Muscles—Origin and Development of a New Leg—Origin of Hairs—Anatomical Nomenclature—The Eyes—Cephalothorax—Abdomen—Epigynum and Parts—Use of Male Palps—Cymbium—Alveolus—Heematodocha—Receptaculum seminis—Blood ¢ pt a A Soe a Liat CM ens Crear ate Ate hes vie) le eis ts Caer ae eee ol noe Ae eee 318-319 eae ae OCICM OL LUDCIER LY a cite te al: 27s, Taf elem oe MSS oe rer al mata Fa ou eens 322-323 ee OCI OP GLOLUM Ales ciecam Sree st ocielgs skates! sar brad atial aule' ve a) waite s 326-327 XI.—Species of Epeira...... PTs Pe Aa CIEE LS SORA RL ep i | 330-331 XII.—Ordgarius—Marxia—Verrucosa ... 2... ee eee eee eee 334-335 XII.—Wagneria—Kaira—W ixia—Carepalxis—Marxia—Gasteracantha.. ... 338-389 XIV.—Argiope—Hentzia—Epeira—Gasteracantha. ... 1+... 22 ee ee 342-343 XV.—Argiope cophinaria, A. argyraspis . . . 66 1 et eee ee ws 346-347 XVI.—Argiope argentata, A. argyraspis, A.cophinaria............. 350-351 XVII.—Species of Cyclosa—Cyrtophora. ... 2. 2. ee ee eee ee 354-355 XVIII.—Species of Zilla—Epeira Peckhami..............2.2.24. 358-359 XIX.—Species of Singa—Circidia funebris—Cyclosa Thorelli ......... 362-363 XX.—Argyroepeira—Abbotia—Singa variabilis ......-....--+55 366-367 XXI.—Species of Acrosoma...-.+...... ODE Sirah an. ya tee ere 370-371 XXII.—Larinia—Drexelia—Meta—Epeira nephiloides. ............ 374-375 XXIII.—Species of Nephila—Hentzia basilica .....-..--+-+502020s 378-379 XXIV.—Nephila—Argyroepeira—A bbotia—Eucta. . 2... 6. ee ee ee eee 382-383 XXV.—Tetragnatha—Eugnatha.. . 2... 2 2 2 ee ee te ee ee tt es 386-387 XXVI.—Species of Pachygnatha............ b Maverapie tar BN Gay wht 390-391 XXVII.—Uloborus—Hyptiotes—Theridiosoma. . . . 2... eee et ee eee 394-395 XX VIII.—Pachygnatha—Tetragnatha—Eucta—Uloborus—Facsimile specimens of the manuscript drawings of Baron Walckenaer. .......... 398-399 XXIX.—Theridium—A galena—Dictyna—Segestria—Cteniza—A ty pus—Misumena— Phidippus—Zygoballus—Astia . 2... 1 1 ee ee te te ee 402-403 XXX.—Lycosa tigrina, L. arenicola, L. ramulosa—Pucetia aurora. ....... 406-407 4 ‘ . J a ] : ' : . ; 1 \ . ! ‘ a et } ’ > x X " 4 xb fe mn alte ie ¥ as Pin: i . re a en , 1 : 3 Paar = -~ M 4 L . : . ca kel Ps J a , + fi =) . CHAPTER I. TOILET, DRINKING, BURROWING, AND SOCIAL HABITS. I. Contrary to general opinion, spiders are tidy in their personal habits. They are indeed sometimes found in positions suggestive of anything but neatness, and occasionally their webs are much soiled with accu- mulated dust, particularly those of tribes which spin sheeted webs. in cellars, stables, barns, and like places. Even in such cases the creature rises above her environment and keeps her body clean. Orbweavers’ webs are rarely seen much soiled by dust or floating refuse of any sort, a fact which of course is chiefly due to the transient life of the snare, which for the most part is limited to a single day. These webs, as we have already seen, are generally made in attractive surroundings among grasses, leaves, and flowers, which would prove a veritable aranead Eden were it not for obtruding evil spirits in the shape of raiding wasps, hungry birds, and other foes. When spiders become covered wholly or in part with objectionable mat- ter, whether dew, rain or dust, or soil as in the case of ground workers, they soon proceed to cleanse themselves. Their brushes and combs are the hairy armature of the legs and palps, together with the hairs and teeth that arm the mandibles, and these toilet implements are well adapted to the work. Did the habit of cleanliness arise from the possession of these implements? Or, were the implements developed out of the vital necessity for a cleanly person ? A large female Domicile spider suspended downward upon a series of cross lines, by her hind legs (Fig. 2), accomplished her toilet something in this wise: The fore leg was drawn up and placed at the tibia between the fangs. It was then slowly drawn outward, the mandibles meanwhile gently squeezed upon it (Fig. 4), until the whole leg had passed through the combing process, when it was stretched out and another leg substituted ; and thus on until all had been cleaned. The palps were combed in the same way, and then were used for cleaning the face and fore part of the mandibles. In this act the palp, after having been drawn through the mouth, perhaps to moisten it, would be tlirown to the top of the caput, which it overclasped in the position of Fig. 3, and then was gradually drawn down over the eye space and front of the mandibles, smoothing down and cleansing the surface thereof as it was moved along. The y (15) Toilet Habits. Toilet Im- plements. 16 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. motion resembled that of a cat in the act of cleaning her face and the back part of her head and ears, after having licked her paw. Spiders may often be seen making their toilets in the early morning. The heavy dews discomfort them and they brush away the drops which cling to them. The same act may be observed after showers of rain, after feeding, and often after making a snare. The viscid beads and bits of flocculent matter from her own web some- times entangle with the hairs and spines of the legs, after a more than usually vigor- ous effort in capturing and swathing a vic- tim, This is so disagreeable that the cap- tive will be trussed up in the open space of the broken orb until the tidy aranead removes the offending matter. Sometimes } after a hearty meal Arachne will make her Fie. 1. Fie. 2. toilet, thus reversing the human mode of Fis. 1, The Agricultural ant cleaning the dressing before dinner. SP oe ee Lk ear aagumae as One spider (Epeira vertebrata), captured 4 web. in a large glass tube while eating a fly, kept hold of her food, deliberately ; adjusted herself to her new position, spun out a few lines which aout were rapidly attached to the sides of the glass, then turned over the Feet. 22d with great sang froid concluded her meal. When she had finished she began cleaning her palps and feet, and gave me a fine opportunity to see the whole operation. I here observed that the mouth secreted freely a liquid which appeared to be a little mucilaginous, and that the paws were drawn through this. The stiff hairs upon the upper part and inner sides of the mandibles must materially aid the process of cleansing. The fangs are used as claspers in the process of cleansing. The leg is passed underneath one fang which clasps it around in the bent part at the articulation, thus holding he ies up to and within the &S- mouth. The tendency of the legs to spring back from their unnatural position is probably thus nie Pere overcome until they can be cleansed. Fic. 8, Combing and washing the head with the palp. The fangs may also serve to move Fic, 4. Combing a fore leg with the fangs. the leg back and forth through the jaws. During this process the mandibles work back and forward like the jaws of vertebrate animals, only that they move horizontally instead of vertically. The fangs are used in the same manner to clasp and adjust the prey during the act of feeding. They thus serve, together with the palps, the purpose of fingers or hands. When a hind leg is cleansed it is bent forward and downward beneath the abdomen and so into the mouth, where it is treated as above described. . TOILET AND HOUSEKEEPING HABITS, 17 The drawing Fig. 5 shows Argiope cophinaria as seen in this phase of making the toilet. The sides of the abdomen are cleansed by brushing them with the sides of the third pair of legs, which are pressed against the body and pushed downward, as one would stroke a cat’s hair with his hand. The cleansing of the dorsal part of the abdomen is effected by throwing a hind leg over the top thereof and moving it downward towards the spinners, keeping it meanwhile pressed against the skin. The spines and bristles on the legs thus act as a comb or brush. I have often had opportunity to note like habits of personal cleanli- ness in our American Mygalide. My longlived tarantula “ Leidy” was remarkably tidy. Always after digging in its burrow it was quite sure to cleanse its person, and, by reason of its size, the use of its palps in wiping off the fore part of its body presented an amusing likeness to the familiar action of pussy when washing her face with her paws. The fore legs were cleansed by placing them against the palps and rubbing the two together. The toilet was also accomplished by overlapping one leg with the other, the second leg over the third, for example, and then rubbing the two as if a man were to scratch his legs by drawing the inner surface of one along the front surface of the other. The first leg was thus rub- bed against the second, of course being pressed down upon it meanwhile. The palp was thrown back to the first leg, which it brushed off in the same manner. It is interesting, and suggestive of the substan- tial unity in the primary functions of life which |. . Siutobecinnlic: «thax: prevades living things, to note this com- —ermost foot by drawing it ay munity of habit and method between ‘7™°¥sh the fangs. ake a vertebrate and an arachnid. The same may be remarked of the ants, whose toilet habits I have carefully observed and de- seribed in my “ Agricultural Ant of Texas.”! The methods of cleaning their persons practiced by ants and spiders are quite similar; more so, indeed, than one would suppose, considering the remarkable difference in the gen- eral life economy of the two creatures. It is not a particularly striking fact, but rather what one would expect, that a spider should hang herself up by a hind foot to comb, brush, and wash herself. But it strikes one as some- what out of the ordinary that an ant should resort to the same turnverein process, yet it does so, as I have shown in the case of the Agricultural Tarantu- la’s Toilet 1 Chapter VIII. on Toilet, Sleeping, and Funeral Habits. 18 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. ant.!. I reproduce a figure from the above work to show the likeness noted. (Fig. 1.) In sooth, one may go further up the grade of zoological life, even to the apex of the pyramid, and note that man himself in the act of combing his hair unconsciously adopts artificial implements which resemble the natural combs and brushes supplied in the tibial combing spur of ants, and the hairs, bristles, and tarsal scopule of spiders. The economic har- mony, here at least, certainly threads vast intervals of being. it: . The tidiness of spiders is further shown by the fact that they are extremely loth to sully with excrement the boxes in which they are im- } prisoned. I continually observe that, when emptying my collect- bya! ing boxes in order to colonize spiders on my vines, the first act kesekee: is to void excreta, which they often do with great freeness, in large white drops, showing that they have really done violence to nature by retaining the same rather than mar the little box in which they were confined. So, also, they are careful in this natural act to avoid fouling their webs. The abdomen is thrown so far outward that the voided matter never comes in contact with the web lines. It is interesting to observe an Orbweaver in the process of cleansing its web from material which has fallen upon it. I made a complete obser- vation of a female specimen of the Shamrock spider engaged at this work. Several leaves of an ampelopsis vine on which her snare was spun, and two bits of the stem thereof, one at least four inches long, had become entangled in the lower part of the orb. The spider had just commenced the work of clearing away this extraneous material when my observation began. She was hanging by a line which she had attached to the hub of her orb, and which dropped down upon the inside of the web, so that she faced the leaf that she was then about to remove. One hind foot reached upward beyond the abdomen and held to this line, which, of course, was also attached to the spinnerets. (Fig. 6.) During part of the operation the other hind foot was stretched backward, and clasped the line near the spin- ners, as though to give additional poise and security to her position. But throughout a large part of the entire operation of clearing away the debris she hung by one hind foot alone, and used the other one for the work of dragging out, revolving, and expelling the material. In this position, hang- ing thus opposite her point of endeavor, she reminded me of painters swinging upon their little seats by ropes fastened far above and engaged in painting the sides of a house; or of workmen let down from heights for the various purposes of their handicrafts. This position was never abandoned for the whole period of time, the spider being able to swing House- cleaning. 1 Pogonomyrmex barbatus. Ibid., page 129 and pl. xvii., Fig. 80. ‘and fling with the fore TOILET AND HOUSEKEEPING HABITS. 19 herself back and forward across an are of four or five inches, moving her- self by the free legs, but always holding to the dragline by at least one foot. Having thus secured a position for convenient labor she seized with her fore feet the intruding leaf, and began removing the spiral and radial lines upon which it was entangled. These were pulled away by the claws and bitten off by the mouth. To promote this purpose the leaf was turned over by the fore legs, assisted by the short third pair. When one end was released it was carried towards the spider’s mouth, gradually passed under- neath the face by the movement of the fore legs, and the clinging parts of the viscid lines in the meantime were gnawed away from the undetached portions of the leaf. Finally the leaf was freed from its en- tanglement, and held off a little space from the body by the legs, which were now bunched close underneath the jaws. Then, swinging herself outward a little ways from the orb, the spider passed the leaf away from her downward, and when nearly freed from her grasp gave ita joint push part of the legs which cast it to the ground. This process was re- - peated in the case of the Fic. 6. A Shamrock spider eseukig her snare of an entangled leaf. other rubbish in the web. The figure shows her in the last act. : The long twig, which hung crosswise of the orb, caused “her much trouble, but she got rid of it very skillfully. Cutting away all the lines on either side, she seized the twig and gradually pulled it beneath her face as she hung head downward, and so passed it underneath her body and away from the orb little by little. Then she poised it for a moment in a con- venient position, and with a quick fling cast it from her towards the ground, the fore legs being used for this act of expulsion. She experi- enced much difficulty at times with the sticky lines, and at various inter- vals was compelled to pause and clear her feet and legs of the viscid 20 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. material, While cutting away the viscid spirals, the portions of the snare above or below had to be looked after lest the orb should collapse by the sundering of the supporting radii. This, however, was adroitly managed as in the case of cutting out entangled insects, the inevitable dragline being used to splice and stay from the spinnerets while. the spider cut away with the fangs. When the two leaves and two twigs had been cleared away, a vacant section was left in the web of about one-fifth the whole. At this point my observation ceased, and I cannot say whether the spider built a new orb immediately, clearing away all the rest, or patched the damaged section. On the following morning, however, she was resting within her nest, holding to a trapline attached to a perfect orb, on which were no tradées of mending. A female Epeira-sclopetaria was observed clearing off a lot of straggling threads stretched across a window, These were gathered up with the second and third pairs of legs principally, which, aided by the Scraps of palps, drew them towards the mouth, into which the spider put hal them. This is a common way of disposing of ragged bits and fragments of spinningwork, which no doubt yield some nour- ishment that may again be transformed into webs. According to Mrs. Treat, the Turret spider is a neat housekeeper. She leaves no debris in her cellar under the tower. The remains of insects are thrown from the top in the same manner that she throws . Penalty excavated pellets. The Tiger spider, on the contrary, always pepe a leaves the skeletons of insects in the bottom of its tube, which in time makes a rich black mould. As the result of this, the occupant is often driven from its room by a great mushroom starting from the bottom of the burrow upward and completely demolishing it, forcing the tenant to seek new quarters. Such a catastrophe never happens to the neater tower builder.4 The advantages of cleanliness are certainly thus remarkably illustrated, and a sufficient reason given why, for the most part, spiders are careful to carry from their dens and snares the debris of insects eaten by them. This is not the universal rule, however, as other species besides Lycosa tigrina will sometimes overspin the remains of their feasts, entirely covering over with spinningwork the hard chitinous portions which are rejected. Nor does this act always result in such a calamity as that above recorded, The Turret spider, after working upon her tower or in her burrow for an hour or more, is apt to stop and assume her favorite position, seated across the top of her tower, in order to make her toilet. First one leg and then another is passed between the palps several times, and all the while her mandibles are at work as if chewing, the moisture meanwhile working up between them. 1 Home Studies in Nature. er DRINKING HABITS AND WATER LIFE. 21 The Purseweb spider, according to Mr. W. L. Poteat,! is scrupulously neat. The droppings of his captive spiders were deposited outside the nesting tube, and generally at such a distance as necessitated ae: her leaving the nest. These deposits were observed only in the Spider morning, so that she quits her tube at night, at least for this purpose. One usually finds a cluster of insect remains loosely adhering to the outer wall of the tube, a little below its upper extremity. These do not seem to be purposely attached to the tube, but to be acci- dentally entangled when being thrown out, as with excavated earth, for they are often seen on the ground at the foot of the tube. The leavings of a single feast are frequently seen bound together with silk. On one tube was recognized the remains of some Neuropterous insect and of two woolly-bear caterpillars, such as hair, bits of chitinous integument, mandi- bles, joints of legs, etc. . The elytra of beetles are also common. Fic. 7. A tarantula drinking water from a saucer. II. Spiders require water, as do most animals, for their health, comfort, and growth. They can, indeed, live long periods deprived of water, but unless supplied with an equivalent in the animal juices of their prey they perish from thirst. Even when insect food is abundant they enjoy fresh water, and habitually partake of it in nature. The dews which gather upon their webs during the hot months probably afford a common supply. In the morning after a heavy dew, or after a rain shower, spiders may be seen brushing away the moisture accumulated upon the hairs which clothe their bodies. This is done by passing the fore legs forward over the head and cephalothorax, and the hind legs over the abdo- men backward. The legs, which gather the moisture upon their armature of hairs and spines, are then doubled under the body and drawn between the two mandibles, or between the mandibles and lip, thus brushing off the water, a part of which, however, remains and is taken into the mouth. Drinking Habits. ; 1A Tube Building Spider, page 16. 2 Tbid., page 15. 22 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. Again, I have often seen the mouth parts applied directly to water, which appeared to be appropriated in the usual way of feeding by pressing the liquid into the gullet. Spiders of all tribes have been seen drinking in this way, and this is the method continually practiced by my tarantulas in confinement as shown in the sketch at Fig. 7. I frequently receive living spiders sent long distances in boxes or bottles, and my first act is to give them fresh water, which they.usually rush upon and at once eagerly apply their mouth parts thereto as here shown. A brood of young Zillas kept in my study were given water daily by throwing it in spray above the greatly extended fine web upon which they were domiciled. They were often observed to take the moisture by passing the legs to the mouth in the manner above described. On one occasion I observed one of the brood carrying a goodly sized globule of moisture in her jaws, which were spread out (Fig. 8) upon the drop over which, on either side, the palps were also extended. These organs seemed to be inserted into the globule, which, however, probably only adhered to them by means of the delicate hairs upon them. At all events the young aranead climbed over her web, carrying the particle with her. At the same time a young Agalena nevia, which had wandered from her little tent spread on the table beneath, and was promenading the broad sheeted commons of the Epeiroids, had seized one of the largest drops of spray and was making off with it. "The water was attached to the mouth parts, as in the above in- ie a ee stance, but in addition the animal Fic. 8, a young Zilla, and FIG. 9, a young Agalena had thrown one fore leg (F ig. 9) carrying a drop of water. around the side of the globule, and thus trudged along, literally carrying an armful of water. I watched her until she had gone eight inches in this way, when the drop, which had gradually diminished in size, had nearly disappeared. It was certainly a curious sight, this little spiderling trampling over the gossamer highway carrying in jaw and claw this strange drinking cup, which shone like a silver ball against the black body of its wee porter. The same behavior was noticed in another individual of a brood of Epeiroids, similarly confined. One of the young had taken or become en- tangled with a drop of water, which it encompassed in part by one of its second pair of legs, and with the remaining legs strode, back downward, along the web. The moisture did not adhere to the lines, although fre- quently in contact with them, and the drop was carried along several inches to a tall box. As soon as the drop touched the wood it was absorbed, and the spiderling returned to the lines, whereon she suspended herself and began licking the dampness from her legs. Such facts strengthen the probability that the dew furnishes a supply for satisfying aranead thirst. DRINKING HABITS AND WATER LIFE. 23 IV. An interesting note upon the feeding habits of spiders has been com- municated to me by the Philadelphia entomologist, Mr. P. P. Calvert. While studying the habits of dragonflies he observed early in May a species of spider, which appears to be a young Dolomedes sex- punctatus, feeding upon newly transformed imagines of these insects. The spiders were lurking upon tall grasses and water plants, on the margin of a small pool near Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia. The dragonflies had come to these plants to transform, and before their wings were dried and ready for flight, while they were yet helpless, the young Dolomedes seized them and sucked their juices. The two species which were thus preyed upon are Ischnura verticalis Say and Nehalannia posita Hagen, both of them small species. Dolomedes, as heretofore described (see Index of Vol. IT.), is a semiaquatic species, running rapidly upon the water to seize insects, and remaining for a con- siderable length of time underneath the surface. The mother deposits her cocoon in a large leafy nest among the bushes, within which the young are hatched. The specimen shown me by Mr. Calvert as taken while in feeding on dragonflies was not more than half grown. We thus have a glimpse of one of the methods in which this Citigrade species, and doubt- less many others, obtain food. It shows also the disadvantages and perils of insects during transformation, when they are exhausted by the process and have not acquired the natural facilities for escape or defense. ™ Various spiders run fearlessly on the surface of the water; some even descend into it spontaneously, the time during which they can respire, when immersed, depending upon the quantity of air confined by the surrounding liquid among the hairs with which they are clothed. Jg this manner the European Argyroneta aquatica is able to pursue its prey, to construct its dome shaped dwelling, and to live habitually in water. There are, however, a few exceptions of extremely small spiders, Neriena longipalpis and Savignia frontata, for example, which, though they do not enter water voluntarily, can support life in it for many days, and that without the external supply of air so needful to the existence of Argyroneta under similar circumstances.! | This is certainly a remarkable fact. I have known spiders that seemed to be drowned by long immersion in water to revive shortly after being taken out; even those plunged in alcohol, if not kept therein too long, will recover from seeming death. But that these small and delicate creatures should live several days in water surely strains one’s belief in even so trustworthy an observer as Blackwall. Feeding Habits. Dolo- medes, Water Habits. 1 Blackwall, Spiders Gt. B. & L, Introduction, page 9. 24 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. Argyroneta has not been found in America, and no spider with habits in anywise resembling it, but our spider fauna contains a number of species, principally limited to the Citigrades, that are much at home either on or within the water. Several species of Dolomedes habitually Rafting ive in the neighborhood of water, and may be seen continually eo running about upon the surface in search of prey. They avail "themselves sometimes of floating material in order to rest during their predatory excursions. This incidental occurrence, in the case of Dol- omedes fimbriatus of England, seems to have been specialized into the habit of constructing a rude sort of raft by lashing together floating leaves. This raft is utilized as a point of departure for raids upon water insects, and as a “lunch room” in which the captured prey are fed upon. It floats upon the fens of England, apparently at the sport of the wind. Dolomedes sexpunctatus, in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, is able to remain for a long time beneath the surface of water. I have on various occasions timed the period of submergence, and one specimen remained underneath the water forty-two minutes. While thus submerged the spiders are surrounded more or less completely with bubbles of air which have the appearance of a silvery coat of mail, as one looks down into the water. I have alluded elsewhere! to the habit of certain Lycosids, as re- ported by Dr. Alan Gentry, to live underneath frozen water during winter, and pass from point to point by means of threads strung upon water plants. This single observation opens up a new and strange chapter in the winter life and amphibious habit of these animals, which invites in- vestigation. No doubt the ability to exist while surrounded with water is of special value during periods of heavy rain, when their burrows Long must be inundated, and when they are themselves submerged for Submer- jours or perhaps days together. It is probably true that all gence. 4 : spiders can endure a good deal of submerging; they seem at least to be able to survive under the heaviest and longest continued showers. How easily even Orbweavers can adapt themselves tolf€he water habit may be found by reference to Vol. I., page 160, where it is seen that Tetrag- natha habitually sails over the surface of, Deal Lake, New Jersey, by means of outspun filaments of thread; and where also (page 161) it is shown that Epeira can avail herself of an accidental float in the shape of her own flossy ball of cocooning silk. VI. Lycosa tigrina digs a tube in the earth from siX to twelve inches in depth, which is bent in a little elbow near the surface. The upper part beyond the bend forms a sort of vestibule,? which assumes the shape of a broad, silk lined funnel at the mouth of the burrow. The background 1 Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, 1884, page 140. 2See Vol. I. Figs. 305, 306, page 323. BURROWING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 25 is composed of whatever material Tigrina can reach with her long hind legs, while her fore legs rest in the edge of her tube. This funnel is the foundation of a concealed room, which it sometimes takes the eas spider several nights to build. It seems to refrain from working oak, * “during the day. Mrs. Treat says that the burrow of Tigrina is uniformly straight. My observation is entirely different; that of Arenicola is uniformly straight down, but Tigrina builds a bent burrow: as above described. A female of this species had a nest in a bed of green moss, and the cover looked like a moundlet of moss and leaves. The longest diameter measured five inches, and the shortest four and a half inches. The base cover was made of acorn cups and sticks firmly held together with threads of silk. Then a silken canopy was spun, and over this were laid green moss, dry leaves, and sticks held fast with spin- ningwork, This made a neat little upper room, the walls of which were smooth, silk lined within, but showed natural inequalities on the outside. A window was left in the room, the use of which soon appeared. The builder had an egg cocoon attached to her spinnerets, and would put herself in position to let this rest against the window where it received the rays of the sun. For three weeks this was her daily occupation, patiently holding her egg sac in the sunlight. Was she not con- scious of the fact that this aided the healthful development of her progeny ? On the 20th of May the observer removed the cover from the burrow, and toward evening Tigrina began to restore it. She reached out her hind legs, feeling for material, and first drew in an acorn cup and proceeded to fasten it. On the following morning (May 2Ist) a broad funnel shaped - ring had been built around the tube, but not covering it. By May 24th the spider had made a room above her burrow lightly covered with moss.* The male of Tigrina is a handsome fellow and nearly as large as the female. In color he is a light snuff brown, with dashes of dark purple, while the legs are striped like a tiger’s. The female is nearly black. The male takes as much pains in building its domicile as the female; indeed, one confined in a jar entirely outdid the female in making a tasteful retreat. He utilized a little twining plant by winding his web around it, thus mak- ing a living green bower over his tube. A New Hampshire Lycosa whose species is unknown was taken from a burrow sixteen inches deep by Mrs. Treat, and placed in a glass jar with five inches of moist earth well pressed down. It soon commenced best to dig a burrow next the glass, giving a fine opportunity to see * it work, It dug the earth loose with its’mandibles and with the fore feet compressed it into a pellet. It again turned, seized the ball in its mandibles, necessitating a third turn, and then came to the edge of the Lycosa Tigrina. Maternal Ingenuity 1 American Naturalist, August, 1879, page 488. to o AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. tube, always with its back to the glass, and adjusted its fore feet so that the tips touched beneath and partly. behind the ball of earth. Then with a sudden movement, like snapping the fingers, she shot the earth forth with sufficient force to make it hit the opposite side of the jar. These pellets were held together with a kind of mucilage, sometimes mixed with web lines, showing that in massing the pellets preparatdry to deporting them, probably some secretion from the salivary glands is used, and that occa- sionally filaments of thread are also utilized for binding the particles of earth together.! 7 A Turret spider was kept in confinement by Mrs. Treat and furnished with sticks and moss in order to observe the manner of erecting her tower. When she had carried down her burrow about two inches in eae depth she commenced to build the tower above it. She would saaas e. take the sticks from the lady’s fingers and place them at the edge of her tube. She worked while inside her burrow, holding the stick with her forefingers until it was arranged to suit her. She then turned and fastened it with a strong web. She took another stick, pro- ceeded in the same way, and continued thus until she had laid the foun- dation of a five sided wall. Next she went to the bottom of the tube and brought up a pellet of earth which she placed at the top of the sticks, and proceeding thus erected a circle of pellets which she next overspun. They were so arranged as to cover the sticks on the inside, leaving the inner walls perfectly rounded and silk lined. Then the spider was ready for more sticks, which she continued to alternate with pellets until the tower reached a height two-and-one-half - inches above the burrow. Sometimes bits of moss an inch or two in length were given her by the observer, which were used by fastening them to a stick with threads of silk. This made a wall fringed on the outside with moss. If the spider were not in a mood for building, and a stick were offered her she would. take it in her mandibles, and with her fore feet give it a _ . quick blow, often sending it away with force enough to hit the hae id enclosing jar. When she was digging and bringing up pellets of lei earth which she did not wish to use upon her tower, she would throw these from the top of the walls with sufficient force to send them a foot or more from the burrow, had it not been for the intervening glass. This habit accounts for the fact that the observer could never find fresh earth near the burrows of Turret spiders. What motive could the aranead have for thus casting the fresh earth away from the immediate vicinity of her nest? No doubt, had the soil been permitted to accumulate by dumping it directly from the tower, the protective uses of the tower would thus have been destroyed. Can it be, moreover, that the secretive instinct which is observed in the building 1 Harper’s Magazine, 1880, page 862. SAPS qe at we BURROWING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 27 habits of other Arthropods is responsible for this habit? Our American Carpenter ants, Camponotus pennsylvanicus, when burrowing their halls and galleries within a tree, cast out the fresh chippage from the openings through the bark. But these are invariably gathered up by a squad of workers at the foot of the trunk, and carried away to a distance, as though it were thus intended to conceal all traces of the neighborhood of the formicary. At least, I can find no other satis- factory motive for such behavior. May it not be that the Turret spider is moved by a similar sentiment ? Secret- iveness. VII. Atypus digs obliquely a deep tunnel of fifteen to. twenty centimetres, the size of its own body. It drapes the tunnel with a straight silken tube, 5 a of close tissue, of which. the upper part, longer than the subter- ranean gallery, is laid horizontally upon the soil and terminates in a point. Near its lower extremity the tube presents a considerable en- largement, forming a quite spacious chamber in which the spider dwells. At the entrance or throat of this enlargement the cocoon is suspended by a number of threads. M. Simon says that he has many times taken Atypus holding worms in its mandibles, and he believes that these worms form the substance of their nourishment. In effect, if one examines the silken cham- ber he remarks a place where the tissue is much thinner and transparent, and Simon thinks it probable that Atypus removes the silk lining and thus readily procures prey without the necessity of mounting to the surface of the earth. However this may be, the actual observations heretofore made upon the feeding habits of Atypus show that she subsists on insects which she captures by seizing them through her tube as they rest or crawl upon the outer surface thereof. She then drags her prey inside to feed thereon and repairs the rent. Mr. Bates describes Territelarian spiders (Mygale Blondii and M. avicu- laria) as inhabiting broad tubular galleries smoothly lined with silken webs. The galleries are two inches in diameter and run in a slanting cn ~ direction two feet.1 Again he speaks of them as spreading a thick web beneath a deep crevice in trees, and having their cells under stones.?, Once more, in alluding to their diversified habits, he says that some species construct among the tiles or thatch of houses dens of closely woven web which resembles fine muslin in texture. From these domiciles they invade the house apartments. Others, according to Mr. Bates, build similar nests in trees.* I believe it will be found that the creatures that burrow in the earth are identical with those which spread shet®ted webs among the trees. Numbers of tarantulas come to our port (Phila- delphia) in fruiting vessels, and are often found in the great pendant 1 Bates’ “The Naturalist on the Amazon,” Vol. II., page 58. 2Thid., Vol. I., page 61. *Ibid., Vol. I., page 106. 28 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. bunches of bananas, to which they had no doubt resorted as a convenient field for capturing prey, and were, themselves captured and shipped, hidden away among the clusters of fruit. In the case of the spider “ Leidy,” described in Vol. IL, page 428, the only effort made at nest building was a rude burrow which was excavated against one side of the box, and which in the course of time was extended downward to the bottom of the box, and laterally along the bottom either way, thus forming an irregular cavity. Into this it frequently de- scended, dividing its time between the cave and the outside surface. This bur- row was entirely destitute of a silken lining, although oc- casionally the opening at the surface would be overspun with a thin sheet of spin- ningwork. I have seen the same habit in other individuals of the species kept in confinement. The only attempt at a nest ever observed by me has been this burrow, with an occasional sheeted closure, and more rarely a slight silken lining of the interior of the burrow. I believe, therefore, that the popular theory that the tarantula makes a trapdoor like the Cal- ifornia Cteniza is without foundation in fact, and that its ordinary hab- itat is a plain burrow like that made by most Lycosids, The mode of mak- ing the burrow was well observed by me at vari- ous times.! In the act of digging the spider first used the two leg like palps, the digital brushes of which are well adapted for that service. Then the two front feet were brought into play to gather up the loose pellets of soil and scrape them into a ball. The first and second pairs of legs then closed up around and under the balled mass, compress- ing it inside the mandibles. (Fig. 10.) When the pellets had thus been gathered and squeezed into a mass, they were held within the extended Fic. 10, A tarantula (Mygale) digging out her burrow, Fic. 11, Tarantula (Mygale) carrying dirt from her burrow. 1 Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, 1887, page 381. BURROWING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 29 mandibles, the palps in the meantime girdling them at the side and beneath, and so were carried away from the burrow to the dumping ground. (Fig. 11.) I never observed any scratching and scraping the dirt backward, in the fashion of a deg digging in a rabbit burrow, which is also the action of bees and wasps when excavating the earth. Always the pellets were de- liberately loosened as I have indicated, squeezed together into a ball and carried off. During the act of digging, and indeed quite habitually during all actions such as eating, etc., tarantula kept her spinnerets curved above the posterior end of the abdomen, while a diverging ray of threads issued therefrom to the surface beneath. VII. Miss Estelle Thomson, a correspondent of a weekly journal,! gives an interesting account of the nesting and burrowing habits of the California ___. Trapdoor spider (Cteniza californica), which contains some ob- California sorvations worthy of a more permanent place and wider circula- Trapdoor ,. . «ys ‘ : Bolder, tion among araneologists. The spider’s location of her nest is carefully planned. It is never made in a hollow, but invariably upon high, dry, sloping knolls so placed that moisture from the winter rains drains off in every direction. This accords with other observations of nesting site communicated to me. A young man in the neighborhood of San Diego made a number of experiments to determine if the occupants of the trapdoor nests would re- place the doors of their burrows. He removed as many as sixty in the course of a week, unhinging them at night, marking the site, and going to the nests in the morning to note results. With- out exception the spider completed and hung a new door in the interval. There was, however, a limit to this industry, and a remarkable series of progressive deterioriation in the quality of the successive doors. The sec- ond door was always of coarser fibre than the first, its proportion of silk being smaller. The third was in about equal proportion of silk and earth ; the fourth largely of mud; the fifth of mud, with barely sufficient webbing to coat and hinge it. The sixth was a poor attempt at forming a mud closure without any webbing, and no instance was observed when a single spider completed more than five new doors, with perhaps half of the sixth. One may attribute this behavior either to the natural exhaustion of the spinning material required for replacing such continuous losses, or to the physical exhaustion of the spider, with a strong element of intellectual dis- gust and discouragement over such an unusual series of accidents. Did the spider’s mind at last reach the conclusion that it had come across an ex- perience quite separated from the realm of accidents ; and dimly apprehend Repairing Doors. 1The Christian Union, New York, May 20th, 1893. 30 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. that she was in conflict with a power beyond that which controls ordinary misfortunes, and which therefore it was quite useless to further oppose? Another experiment with interesting results was the fastening of the trapdoor with a pin or peg into the adjacent soil, so as to prevent exit therefrom. Invariably when this was done in the evening, a little side branch was excavated over night, with an opening at the nearest point to the original mouth of the tube, and a new door hung upon it. It is possible that some of the various nests, first described by Mr. Moggridge’ as branched nests, may have been due to accidental stoppage of doors. It has been supposed that spiders created these branches as a refuge from enemies, or perhaps from aggressions of the elements. Miss Thomson’s record would indicate that the branch tube is simply a natural effort of the spider to provide an exit from her burrow whenever the ordinary mode of departure has been prevented. The curious thing about it, perhaps, is that the inmate did not attempt to burrow out the obstructed door, instead of taking the roundabout and more laborious course of making for herself a side exit. What could have caused this peculi- arity of behavior? Can we account for it by the general suspicious tem- per which characterizes spiders, and many other animals, when brought in contact with a new experience? Miss Thomson attributes to Cteniza californica the secretive tendency which naturalists have observed in other Trapdoor spiders. She conceals her abode from observation by causing it to mimic the adjacent site. The door corresponds so closely to the character of the surrounding surface that it is difficult to discover it. If the bank is bare the top of the door is also bare; if the bank is covered with lichens, the spider cuts a crop of minute lichens and glues them with nice judg- ment to the outside of her door, thus disguising the entrance. When one nest is discovered it is comparatively easy to discover two, as they are almost always in pairs, and many times so close that their lids touch when open. The observer does not state whether these contiguous burrows are occupied by the different sexes, and it would be interesting to know the facts in regard to this. ; When leaving her burrow Cteniza simply allows the door to drop of its own weight. When returning she scampers off at a smart pace for her dwelling, and apparently lifts up the door with the fangs of her mandibles, and as she backs down the burrow allows the trap to fall be- hind her. After the hatching of the eggs from seventy-five to a hundred black- and-green spiderlings will be found occupying the maternal nest. When these are a few weeks old they leave the native burrow, and begin to exca- vate in sunny places minute tubes of their own. Often a dozen such Branch- ing Nests. Site Mim- icry. 1 Harvesting Ants and Trapdoor Spiders. ’ Ey BURROWING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 31 small abodes will be clustered about the old trapdoor. These vary greatly in size, but all are quite perfect in form, The smallest nest measured by Miss Thomson was barely three inches in depth, yet this was fitted with a diminutive circular door no larger than the nail of a lady’s little finger. The largest adult nest measured was twelve inches in depth. TX. Heretofore I have considered the nesting habits of spiders! and the influence of enemies upon their architecture (Vol. II., Chapter XIII). Elsewhere I have tried to trace the relations between the nesting Taren- habits of the two great tribes, Citigrades and Tunnelweavers.? Opifex. A discovery lately made by Mr. W. A. Wagner, of Moscow, gives new interest to these statements and enables me to com- plete the chain of resemblances pointed out. The connecting link between the industry of the two tribes is found in Mr. Wagner’s Tarentula opi- phex,® a Russian spider of the family Lycosoide.4 The nesting habits of this spider are thus described by Wagner. It was observed in numbers in the Russian province of Orel, and dwells among the tufted vegetation of fallow lands, its principal habitation being fields of wheat and pota- toes. The species is agile in movement, active in habit, and compara- tively small in size, having a body length of less than one-half inch, ten millimetres. (Figs. 12, 13.) The burrow is not deep, that of the adult usually not exceeding two and a half inches; it is enlarged at the bottom, giving it a bottle shape (Fig. 15); is silk lined throughout, but the lining is extremely thin except toward the entrance; the walls are smooth and more carefully finished than usual with known Lycosids, as, for example, Trochosa singoriensis. But the most remarkable and distinct feature is the covering of the burrow, which is constructed after the well known type of the Trapdoor spiders, Figs. 14, 17, 18. This door consists of a single layer of silk covered externally with a coating of soil, whose pellets are bound together by a mesh of threads and spread unequally upon the surface, being much thicker in front than behind. It has the usual shape of the Trapdoor spider’s door, something more than semicircular, or a circular plate cut squarely across the end by which it is hinged to the burrow. (See Figs. 17, 18.) Instead of being beveled along the edge like the door of our Cteniza californica, and thus fitting into the burrow like a cork into a bottle, it rests when closed upon the surface edge of the burrow like a basket lid upon a basket. The front, or entrance end, projects beyond the burrow (Figs. 15, 16), making a sort 1 Vol. L., Chapter X VIII. 2 Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1887, Philadelphia, page 377, sq. ® Opifex ? * Bulletin Soc. Imper. des Naturalistes de Moscow, No. 4, 1890. Trapdoor rial Lycosid. 32 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. Nesting Architecture of Tarentula opifex. (After Wagner.) Fic. 12, Female. Fic. 13. Male. Fic. 14. Watching for prey at the bottom of its burrow, the door partly raised. Fic. 15. Section view of the burrow, showing its bottle shape. Fic. 16. Side view in outline of door and throat of burrow; s, silk lining of same; h, hinge of silk; cr, crest of the door in front; p, portico of same; sw, silken walls. Fic. 17. Outside of door from above. Fic, 18. Inside of door, silk lined. Fria. 19, Grouping of eyes. na BURROWING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 33 of portico for the spider when it is on guard. (Fig. 14.) The silk lining of the walls of the burrow (Fig. 16, sw) is continued along one side of the under surface (s) of the door by a thickened ribbon of silk (h), which serves the purpose of a hinge upon which the lid turns when it opens and shuts; its motion backward, however, is limited, for if one tries to bend it beyond the vertical the hinge is fractured. It will be seen from the section view of the upper part of the burrow (Figs. 15, 16) that the lid is much thickened toward the front, forming a crest (cr), while the hinder part next the hinge has only a thin The Lid oat of soil. This arrangement, Mr. Wagner points out, serves to Hinge. bear down the free end of the lid, and closes it rapidly and tightly _ when the spider enters or goes forth; it has, in fact, the advan- tage of the strong and elastic hinge of the Trapdoor spider’s nest, which unites with the gravity of the door to bring it down into the burrow’s mouth. Some time before sunset, and probably during the day, Tarentula opifex may be seen on guard at the mouth of its den (Fig. 14) ; its head and fore COMPARATIVE VIEW OF TERRITELARIAN ARCHITECTURE. Fic. 20. Simple burrow (Mygale), unlined or lined only at top. Fic. 21. Purseweb spider’s tubular nest supported on trees; burrow sparsely lined, covered with sand, wood, and mould. Fic. 22. Atypus piceus; low hung tubular nest without opening, covered with vegetable miscellany. Fic. 23. Silken rial tower, Leptopelma elongata. Fic. 24. Conglomerate tower, doorless. Fic. 25. Conglomerate tower, with wafer lid. Fig. 26. Burrow, with lid at the surface; silken lining. Fic. 27. Thick door, many layers, beveled edge, burrow completely lined with heavy silk. legs are then thrust over the margin of the door, which hangs ajar, and is supported upon the head and back. Here it will remain for a while as though on sentry duty until it ventures forth in search of prey. It is only when thus awaiting at its partly open door that it can be well seen; at the least movement of the observer or at sight of his approach the spider plunges into its burrow, the lid drops heavily, being borne down by the mass of soil accumulated at the crest (cr), and when closed it so closely resembles the surrounding surface that it is nearly impossible to discover it. Here, now, is the one link which was wanting to entirely connect the architecture of the Lycosids with that of the Tunnelweavers, and complete that resemblance which I had pointed out. The series as thus completed may be arranged as represented at Figs. 20-32. Mr. Wagner has referred to the general likeness between the nest of his Opifex and that of the - typical Trapdoor spiders, Nemesia or Cteniza, but has dwelt even more upon 34 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. the differences. He calls attention to the fact that Cteniza’s door consists of a series of superimposed layers of silk and mud, amounting sometimes to thirty,’ is thick, of equal width, and beveled at the edge; while Opifex makes a thin door composed of a single layer of silk and soil, much thicker in front, and with unbeveled edge. The hinge of the former is also tough and elastic, while the latter is feeble and with little elasticity. All this is true, but Mr. Wagner appears to have lost sight of the fact that the Ter- ritelarise embrace many species besides Nemesia and Cteniza whose indus- try is greatly varied in form, and furnishes examples much nearer that of Wagner’s species than the one with which he compares it. Moggridge has called attention to these in that form of trapdoor which he calls the “wafer” type as distinguished from the “cork” type.? The latter is the form with which alone Mr. Wagner appears to have been familiar, while the former more closely resembles his own interesting discovery. The eminent French araneologist, M. Eugene Simon, has added greatly to our knowledge of these aranead architects, and I have quoted freely* COMPARATIVE VIEW OF LyCOsID ARCHITECTURE. Fic. 28. Lycosa scutulata, simple burrow in the ground; a temporary closure for moulting and cocoon- ing. Fic. 29. Funnel shaped tube of silk, more or less supported and disguised by vegetable foliage and debris; Lycosa tigrina. Fic. 30, Turret of silk protected by armor of twigs or grass bits; Lycosa arenicola. Fic. 31, Vestibule of silk, armored with moss, etc., with a rude door, Lycosa tigrina. Fic. 32, Silk lined burrow, with wafer trapdoor at surface; Tarentula opifex. from his papers and given a number of illustrations exhibiting the -appar- ent development of this peculiar industry, from the mere straight burrow to the beautiful silk lined tube of Cteniza, crowned with its admirable hinged trapdoor. In this series is one, the nest of Stothis astuta,* a South American species, which in its general characteristics resembles that of Wagner’s Basketlid spider. The same wafer door is found upon the nest of another species, Dolichoscaptus Latastei Simon, which builds a columnar turret covered with a movable lid. We are thus able to construct a double comparative series of nests, one from the Lycosids, the other from the Ter- ritelarize, which will show the following facts: First, a progressive advance- ment from the simple tubular burrow in the ground to a silken lined bur- row covered by a hinged lid. Second, the various stages of the two series 1See Vol. Il. of this work, page 249 and Fig. 264. 4Vol. IL, page 412, Figs. 347-349. 2 “Harvesting Ants and Trapdoor Spiders.” ° Vol. IL, page 411, Fig. 346. ®See Vol. II. of his work, page 409, sq. ate « SOCIAL HABITS OF SPIDERS. 35 on the one hand correspond generally with the several stages on the other. Third, on the whole, the mechanical skill of the Tunnelweavers gives a more finished product. Fourth, progression in both series is from an equally primitive habitat upward to the most complex and complete, thus making the two series entirely independent, and not the one a continuation of and development from the other. I am quite aware that this language is analogical and nothing more, as there is no information in my possession which permits us to think of the Tunnelweavers and their industrial habits as actually developed from the Lycosids (or the reverse) in any sense known to science. Nor is there evidence of improvement in the nesting skill of any single species, within which the character of the architecture is persistently unchanged. Nor is there proof of a gradation in the architecture of any species corresponding with the faunal position of the architect. My purpose is simply to point out the marked analogies which present themselves in the study of the architecture of the various species of the two suborders. For a grouping of facts which seem to extend this analogy, as to the essential factor of a tubular web, over the wider field of the entire order Aranew, the reader is referred to my Vol. I., Chapter XVIII. X. In a preceding volume of this work! I have considered with some de- tail the tendency of spiders to assemble in communities. The observations ; of Darwin, Azara, and others on what they supposed to be the Social : : : : ‘ Spiders, &'egarious or social habits of adult spiders are there noticed, and the opinion expressed that the examples cited were accidental assemblages of individuals held together in close neighborhood by various favorable circumstances, but with individual metes and bounds more or less distinctly marked. Nevertheless, in view of the possibilities of Nature, such a conclusion was held with reservation. I there further show that, in the babyhood of numerous species, spiderlings quite invariably maintain assem- blages, and dwell together peacefully, or at least with few breaches of fraternity-; a state of amity which is maintained until Nature lakes ~ prompts the individuals to a wider individual life, at which time the assemblages are broken up, and the natural solitary habit and ferocity of the. order assert themselves. I have often pondered whether this strong habit, fixed upon the early life of spiders, might not have formed a basis for the development, in adult life, of some such companionship, fraternity, and unity as mark the social Hymenoptera, so well illustrated in ants and wasps. It does not at first thought seem strange that a habit so marked in babyhood should be car- ried forward and become permanent in adult character and life. Yet, so 1 Vol. IL, pages 230-241. 86 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. far as my observations warranted, I could find nothing to justify such con- jecture, and the records examined did not seem sufficiently clear to permit an opposite opinion. Since the issue of my work, however, some remarkable and most inter- esting observations haye been published by the eminent araneologist, M. Eugene Simon, of Paris,} which have induced me to review the subject. M, Si- In a paper pre- aa sented to the En- tomological Soci- ety of France, February, 1891, he relates and illus- trates the habits of certain so called sociable spiders representing several families, observed by him during his voyage to Venezuela, South America, during the winter and spring of 1887-’88. This sociability presented several degrees. It was sometimes temporary and limited to the period of reproduction ; sometimes permanent. In some cases the work exe- cuted was absolutely com- mon and alike for all indi- viduals of the community ; in others, the common work did not exclude some por- tion of individual work. With these qualifications he proceeds to classify the so- Fic. 33. Common incubating nest of Epeira bandelieri. : . Fia. 34, A single cocoon. (After Simon.) ciable od iders of Venezuela in three categories. Epeira bandelieri, ordinarily, does not appear to differ in habits from typical Epeiras. Its web is the normal solitary one, but at the time of laying their eggs several females unite and construct in common, upon a bush, a large shell or cocoon case, of a yellow and woolly tissue, in which they proced to lay their eggs and fabricate their cocoons. (Fig. 33.) These Fic, 33. Fig. 34. 1 Observations Biologiques ‘sur les Arachnides, Soc. Entomol. de France, 1891. By M. Eugene Simon. ; y, SOCIAL HABITS OF SPIDERS. 37 are of a thick fibre, analagous to the cocoons of Argiope,! are rounded upon one face, almost flat upon the other, and attached to the walls of the incubating chamber by a short pedicle. (Fig. 33.) M. Simon had found many of these shells enclosing as high as ten cocoons, and “five or six females sharing together the cares of maternity.” He did not know what might have transpired at the moment of hatching, but thought it probable that the shell would be found at that time filled with a large number of young Epeiras. He had received from Quito another species of the same genus, of which the societies ought to be more numer- ous, if one may judge by the series of cocoons disposed in wreaths, which had been sent to him. But the cocoons of this species are spherical, and tied together by a loose wadding without being enclosed within a case. This last named feature is not uncommon, as may be seen by refer- ence to my observations of cocooning habits.2 There seems to be a de- cided; and in some cases entire, suspension of pugnacity and Sociable Epeira. pied _ ordinary appetite in the females at the time of ovipositing. So cud intense are they upon discharging the functions of Nature, and so pressing the necessity which is upon them, that they appear to have no place in their organism for any other passion or appetite, but push straight on, before whatever difficulties or dangers, in the discharge of their maternal duties. At such times they appear quite indifferent to the presence of other spiders engaged in like work; and as it falls out that the same retreats are sought by various mothers of the same or of different species and genera, they often do come together in such places, as, for example, under the canopy of a bit of bark (Fig. 55, Vol. IT.), or in the angle of a convenient wall or cornice (Fig. 60, Vol. II.). In such cases, one mother will lay her cocoon close by that of another. The first made cocoon will be overlapped in part by the spinningwork of the second, the second by the third, and so on till a series closely wrapped together may be produced. (Vol. IL., Fig. 60.) All this, however, as is manifest, is done without any collusion; it is a fortuitous result, and is wrought by spiders whose solitary habits are undoubted, and therefore it is no proof of sociability. It would be more difficult, however, to explain on such a principle the preparation of the silken shell of Epeira bandelieri as described by M. Simon. It certainly does present at first view the seeming A Com- of an intentional provision, made in common by a number of ai gl individuals, who must have been moved by some common im- Chamber, Pulse which contains some element of sociability. Had the dis- tinguished French naturalist observed the construction of this common enclosure or incubating chamber there would be little room for doubt; but as he appears to reason rather from the specimens as they 1See Vol. II., page 76 of this work. 2 Vol. II., page 85. 38 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. had been collected by him after construction, I can hardly forbear the feeling that even this structure may be accounted for on the same prin- ciple as aboye, without bringing to bear upon it the theory of a social community, It is a most interesting point which can only be elucidated by future observation. Simon does indeed say that the incubating chamber, with its included ten cocoons, has five or six females who have assumed the duties of mater- nity. Did he observe these in the joint act of constructing the case? If not, did he reach this conclusion by finding the dead bodies of several females enclosed within the chamber along with their cocoons? If he did not observe the actual construction of the outer case, his inference that the enclosed cocoons must have been the work of’ several females could only have come from the fact that five or six adult females were - found inside. In the absence of this definite information one is perhaps justified im suspecting that the cocoons, as described, may have been en- closed by one mother. The number is indeed large as compared with that produced by the ordinary Orbweaver, but by no means peculiar; for, as I have shown,! Cyclosa bifurca produces as many as thirteen cocoons, which are Mothers hound together by a flossy string. The Basilica spider? encloses bebeto fi ithin an exterior e of like tissue, which she many Co-fiV@ cocoons wi rior case of like tissue, w 8 coons. 8pins above her snare. Theridium serpentinum® will produce as many as eight cocoons, which are assembled close to one another at the top of her meshed net, and enclosed within thickened walls of spin- ningwork, Yet more striking, perhaps, is the cocoon string of Segestria canities,* which contains as many as twelve cocoons overlapping one another like the tiles upon a roof, and overlaid with a thick sheet of spinningwork, which is further protected by a rude thatch of leaves collected from the bush upon which it hangs. The spider’s tubular home is woven at one side of her treasures, and the whole is surrounded by an external maze of network supported upon the branches of adjoining shrubbery. These cases at least demonstrate that the example of spinningwork described by M. Simon might have been the product of one mother’s industry. Whatever may be the truth as to the above point, these two facts are clear, viz., first, that the exhibition of sociability, if Simon’s view be ac- cepted, is limited to a few hours, or at most days. It is an inci- dental characteristic, and does not entitle the species to be called social any more than the fraternal communism of young spiders during the first few days after issuing from the egg. . Second, even if the incubating chamber of Epeira bandelieri be the product of joint labor, the fact is only faintly comparable to the highly organized communal indus- Conclu- sions. 1 Vol. IL, page 103, Fig. 96. ®Thid., page 112, Fig. 108. 2Tbid., page 105, Figs. 98, 99. 4Ibid., page 136, Figs. 165, 166. . SOCIAL HABITS OF SPIDERS. 39 tries of the social Hymenoptera, and the use of the word “social” in this restricted sense is deceptive. XI. The element of sociability appears to be much more highly developed with a Lineweaver which Mr. Simon describes as Anelosimus socialis, a F species belong- Social ing to the fam- Theridi- . Ae ie ily Theridiide. Many hundreds, perhaps thousands of this species spin a common web, soft and transparent, but of a compact tissue analogous to that woven by Agalena. This snare is of indeterminate form, and sometimes attains im- mense dimensions, even enveloping an entire coffee tree. At first sight it ap- pears more like the spin- ningwork of sociable cat- erpillars than of spiders. When one opens the ex- terior envelope he_ sees that the interior is divided by silken partitions into irregular lodges; within these the spiders freely moye about, and upon meeting touch one another, as do ants, with their an- tenne, and sometimes a tha eC number of them will be Fie. 35. Common leafy tent of Anelosimus socialis. seen. feeding upon the Fic. 36. Cocoons of same. (After Simon.) same prey. The cocoons are rounded, formed of flocculent wadding of an iron gray color, are with- out pedicles, and are fixed to the common web by threads which form a soft net. : Upon this statement and the figure of M. Simon, which I reproduce in Fig. 35, I remark that the phenomenon is explicable by the ordinary habits of young spiders. This I have fully illustrated in Section V., Chapter VIII., Vol. Il. Such an assemblage as there shown (Fig. 251) differs 40 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. from that of Anelosimus socialis simply in extent. The habit of young spiders, immediately after their exit from the cocoon, is to surround them- selves on all sides with a close tissue of just such spinningwork as M. Simon describes. One of the most remarkable of these I have described (Vol. II., page 227, Fig. 254), where the enclosing tent of the young brood covered a large working table and extended upwards to the ceiling of the room. J have seen some colonies covering a space eight or ten feet in length and four or five in width. I have also observed a large space of a vine or bush enclosed in a similar manner by broods of Epeira, one of which is described in this volume, in the chapter on Moulting Habits. Now, it is only required that the broods of several cocoons, left by mothers in the same neighborhood, should issue at one time, to Tenting produce the results figured. by the French savant. These colo- Com- nies would certainly, as I can affirm from observation, unite eae their spinningwork, while retaining a degree of separation, and lings. so enclose an immense space, overweaving leaves, and uniting the interspaces by a soft but compact oe precisely of the sort made by the Venezuela species. I am at a loss to determine from Simon’s language whether he is de- scribing the work of several broods of spiderlings or the work of adult females. It is true that he speaks of the cocoon, and indeed figures it (Fig. 36); but he may have done this from an empty cocoon found in the midst of the colonial tent after abandonment by its inmates, as I have many times found cocoons. Until this point is settled, I feel constrained to say that there is nothing peculiar in this habit of this species, and nothing to justify one in regarding it as more sociable than other Ther- idioid spiders. One fact, indeed, looks in the opposite direction; namely, that the spiders when meeting touch one another after the fashion of ants, who are well known to cross their antennee for purposes of recognition. I have frequently observed a habit similar to this in the case of young spiders while in the period of assemblage immediately after issuing. They do touch each other with their fore paws, and even with their palps; though I should say that the manner is not strictly homologous with that of the ants, but it is only in a general way analogous thereto. If, however, the spiders described by M. Simon as engaged in constructing the tented domicile which he figures, were adult females, and if they have so far sunken their voracious and pugnacious habits as to recognize each other by palpal touch, and thereupon pass by without a hostile attempt, we have, indeed, a most remarkable fact, and one which relates the habits of spiders to those of the highest of the insects, in one of their most in- teresting features. The uses of a spider’s palps are indeed various; but, as far as I know, the above observation stands alone in attributing to those. organs such a function. SOCIAL HABITS OF SPIDERS. 4] XII. A third type of assemblage was observed by Mr. Simon in a species of Uloborus (U. republicanus), which is declared to be much more perfect, because it presents at the same time a common snare contributed by all the partners, and an individual snare proper to each one. Many hundreds of this Uloborus live together ; they spin between the trees an immense web, formed of a central net quite compact, upon which many individuals of the two sexes hang side by side, but these assemblages are chiefly composed of males. This net is suspended by long threads diverging in all directions, and attached to surrounding objects. In the intervals of the open spaces formed by these large threads other Ulobori hang upon their orbicular snares, in rays and circles, each one of which is occupied by a single individual. One may see from time to time a spider detach itself from the central group, in order to seek among the upper cables a suitable place for the fabrication of its orbicular web, It is the central net that ap- pears to serve as the place of pairing, as far as the observer was able to judge by the quantity of males which were there gath- ered together. There, at least, it is certain that the hatching of the eggs takes place. This ap- pears to occur almost simultane- va Rena Ae cea) t oe ais Fic, 87. Females 3! Uloborus republicanus with their © an, cocoons. the males have disappeared, the se females have ceased to spin their regular snares, and hang motionless upon their central net, a few centimetres distant from each other, each one guarding her cocoon. (Fig. 37.) The cocoon itself is most singular in shape, and resembles more a bit of vegetable fibre accidentally fallen upon the snare than the spinningwork of a spider. In its general features it resembles the cocoons of our American Uloborus. (Vol. II., page 107, Fig. 103.) The habits of this Uloborus differ little in their general characteristics from those of our American species. I have elsewhere described their tend- ency to hold rather closely to the neighborhood in which they were hatched, so that their snares may be seen in close contiguity. Indeed, other species of Orbweavers have the same tendency; and I have observed a number of small snares of young specimens spun upon the broad sheeted common Uloborus Republi- canus. Guarding Cocoons. 42 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. which had been woven by the brood in their babyhood assemblage. Snares of the Labyrinth spider are often seen thus closely placed, and in point of fact the same may be said of almost all Orbweavers under Orbweav- favoring conditions. I have described an assemblage of Zillas =e whose snares were as closely placed as those of Uloborus repub- eigh- .. ee , : - borhoods. licanus, the foundation lines thereof being supported by the iron railing and columns upon the footway at the sluice where the waters of Loch Katrine pass down into Loch Achray, in the Trossachs Glen of Scotland. So also with the snares of our most common indig- enous Epeiras, which one may see at times so closely placed along the surface of a stable wall or other favoring site that the founda- : tion lines thereof are interblended, on the one side and the other, cial Com- . . : Ha OE munities, 2'Ving to the casual glance the appearance of a widely distrib- uted colony. Yet, in point of fact, all these are simply examples of the contiguous placing of snares by individuals known to have no particle of social habit, and which are as absolutely distinct as though miles apart. I am constrained to believe that there is no more evi- dence of a really social community, analogous to that established among ants, wasps, and other social Hymenoptera, in the assemblages of U. re- publicanus described by M. Simon, than in the examples which I have thus cited. ; The assembling of the two sexes upon the outlying threads surrounding the orbicular snares has something more the appearance of friendliness. It would seem, indeed, that here we have an evidence that individuals are drawn together by some social tendency. Yet even in this fact one can see nothing absolutely conclusive of a really social habit; for it must be remembered that M. Simon notes that most of these individuals, thus found congregated upon the netted suburbs of the true snares, were males, a fact which is quite in accordance with the habits of that sex. I have elsewhere shown (Vol. II., page 21), that as many as three or four males have been observed by me hanging upon the outer precincts of the orb of an Argiope or of Epeira labyrinthea. I am inclined to think that the examples de- scribed by Simon may be thus explained; for although males of Orb- weavers are disposed to quarrel with each other at times, they do also exhibit a remarkable degree of good temper, or at least absence of pug- nacity, when thus waiting at the gates of their lady’s bower. In view of all these observations, which appear to carry the habits of araneads nearer to those of social insects than any yet published, I am compelled to say that further facts are required before we can pronounce the author’s con- clusions to be well established. It is much to be hoped that M. Simon may have the opportunity to reéxamine the facts which he has communi- cated, and thus add the unquestionable solution of this most interesting problem to the brilliant service which he has rendered in that branch of natural science of which he has made himself a master. SOCIAL HABITS OF SPIDERS. 43 Another observation looking in the same direction has been recorded since my work went to press. Rev. O. P. Cambridge! describes a spider of the family Eresidze whose nest came under observation in the A Grega- London Zoological Society’s Gardens. It was sent thither by pions Colonel Bowker from Durban to Lord Walsingham, who at Mr. peas in Cambridge’s suggestion sent it to the Gardens. The nest con- London, tained from one hundred to one hundred and fifty living indi- viduals of both sexes, some adult, some immature, and remained in their temporary home for some time in an active and thriving state. The nest filled a box two feet long by nine inches wide and five inches deep. No detailed description of the home or habits of the colony is given, but it would appear to have been simply a mass of threads so thickly woven that they formed in places a close tissue something like that which Phidippus opifex (McCook) of California makes for herself on a much smaller scale. (Vol. II., page 150, Fig. 185.) That this spider is a social one may be inferred from the above scant description, and Mr. Cambridge’s statement that the species is “unique in its gregarious habits.” He notes that the individuals “appear to devour cockroaches and crickets, tearing them to pieces in concert.” ‘This statement, however, is somewhat neu- tralized by the additional remark that each “carries off his share of the prey, like a pack of hounds breaking up a fox.” It is earnestly to be hoped that detailed notes and drawings of this “family” have been kept by some trustworthy observer in the Zoological Gardens. Such a rare opportunity ought to have yielded data for definitely determining this most interesting problem. 1 Proceed. Zool. Soc., London, 1889, pages 34, 42, pl. ii., Figs. 4 and 5. CHAPTER II. MEMORY, MIMICRY, AND PARASITISM. lL Aw interesting example of the power of spiders to adapt themselves and their industry to circumstances occurred under my observation in the case of a Turret spider, Lycosa arenicola. Wishing to preserve a nest to study the life history of its occupant, I carefully took up the sod containing the tube, carrying away with me several inches in depth of the burrow. The upper and lower openings were plugged with cotton to retain the spider during transit. Upon arrival of the nest in Philadelphia the cotton plug guarding the entrance was removed, but the other was forgotten, and thus allowed to remain. The nest with the enclosing sod was imbedded in the soil in- side of a tub, and the spider left to work out naturally its industrial instincts, It im- mediately began removing the cotton at the bottom of its burrow, and cast some of it out upon the surface. But finally, guided, apparently by its sense of touch, to the Fic. 38. Cotton lined nest of Turret spider. knowledge that the softer fibres of the cotton would be an excellent material with which to line its ‘tube, she put it to that use, and had soon spread a smooth layer over the inner surface and upon the opening. In this manner the interior was padded for about four inches from the summit of the tower downward. It may be taken for granted that this Turret spider for the first time had come in contact with such material as cotton, and had immediately utilized its new experience by substituting the soft fibre for the ordinary silken lining, or rather by adding it thereto. This nest, with the cotton wadding, is represented at Fig. 38. The cotton was distributed quite evenly over the (44) Intelli- gence and Memory. oy er ks me MEMORY OF SPIDERS. 45 walls of the burrow and tower, and had evidently been beaten down and pushed in after the manner of Lycosids and Agalenads when beating in the spinningwork of their cocoons and the silk lining of their burrows and tubes. Mrs. Treat having learned how this spider, which had been taken from her grounds, had used the cotton, was led to make several experiments. She placed cotton by the side of seventeen burrows, both of the Turret and Tiger spiders, situated upon her lawn, and found eight of the number used the cotton as a lining, but none as artistically as the one above de- scribed. She then went to the edge of a wood, some distance away, and placed cotton by the side of eleven burrows there located. None of the occupants availed themselves of the artificial lining. This seems a curious fact, but the theory which the author uses to account for it, namely, that the individuals upon the lawn must have been descendants of species col- onized from New England in the neighborhood of a cotton manufactory, can hardly be accepted. My recollection is that all these creatures were natives of New Jersey. I am sure at least that the one which wove the cotton lining for me was a native New Jer- seyman, One specimen of those situated upon the lawn not only used the cotton fibre for the lin- ing, but also for a cover or door of its dwell- ing. This door she made smooth on A Door of § : Cotton, ‘he side, and fastened it firmly down on the outer edge of her wall. (Fig. 39.) She did not make the same use of the cotton that she would of soft moss, which she sometimes uses in building. The fibre of the cot- ton was drawn out and interwoven among the sticks around the upper portion of the tower, and made to take the place of ordinary web work.! I have this nest in my collection and give a drawing thereof, Fig. 39. The use of the cotton is curious and interesting, and remotely suggestive of a door, perhaps. But such use is not clearly shown. These examples suggest no little elasticity of intellect on the part of these spiders, for they were at once able to perceive the usefulness of the new material brought within the range of their experience, and easily adapted it to their special needs in lining the interior of their towers. Were they conscious that such soft, pliable material permitted economy of silk secretion, and could that have been a motive for its use? These facts start a most inter- esting train of reflection and conjecture, and suggest a fruitful field of inquiry and experiment to one who may have both disposition and oppor- tunity to engage therein. Fie. 39. Cotton utilized for a door. 1 My Garden Pets, page 82. 46 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. II. I took a female Epeira trifolium from her nest in order to observe the changes of color. She was kept within a glass vessel for forty-eight hours, and then returned to her old web and placed upon it near Memory the centre. The web was about as when she left it. She paused of Trifoli- shout a half minute, seized the trapline, taking precisely the um, ee ° : : position and in the exact spot which she had occupied for sev- eral days before. Did she remember her nest after the forty-eight hours’ interval? The same fact as to memory of local snare and nest was tested upon another Trifolium, with the same results, The example above quoted indicates that Epeira trifolium preserved during twenty-four to forty-eight hours a recollection, or at least a perception of some sort, of its old quar- ters within its home nest. Yet stronger examples may be cited of spiders remembering their homes. The Trapdoor spider, for example, that constructs its ingenious hinged door upon a bed of moss or lichen, and then covers the lid with plants precisely like those surrounding it, when it leaves its den and goes out upon excursions for food, and returns without difficulty to its home, certainly has preserved distinct recollection of the location of that home. j Again, the Tiger spider makes a burrow underneath beds of moss, erecting over it a vestibule or dome composed of the material everywhere surrounding the spot. From this she sallies forth into the vici- Sense of nage, often making wide excursions after prey, and returns are either by day or night to her nest, notwithstanding its general likeness to the environment. This is true of Lycosids generally. The mother Lycosa in the cocooning period oftens erects a cell or caye, underneath a stone or in like positions, which is partly lined with silk, and sometimes has a pretty approach to the surface between the sprays of grass, clover, or other vegetation, as may be seen in Vol. IIL., page 144, Fig. 175, with the nest of Lycosa scutulata.1 From this retreat Lycosa will sally forth after food, dragging her egg sac behind her. It may seem a little strange that she should do so, and one might be inclined to think her rather stupid not to leave this treasure at home. Nevertheless, she attaches it to her spinnerets, and ‘carries it with her in all her excursions, and thereby, no doubt, saves it from parasitic and other enemies. Having secured lrer food she returns to her cell, and notwithstanding the manner in which it is secreted, finds it without difficulty. So also Saltigrade spiders, and others of like habit, who issue from their silken cells to stalk their prey on walls and trees, appear to find their way to their homes without difficulty. These facts indicate on the part of 1 This species is there erroneously given as Lycosa saccata. a a ‘ MIMICRY OF SPIDERS, 47 these spiders a good memory of the location of their domiciles, and a sense of direction sufficiently developed to bring them upon the return path with accuracy. Of course there is nothing remarkable about this, for such facts are true of the insect world generally. It is known by all bee hunters, and by all keepers of bees, that either the wild or the hive bee will find its way home after a long excursion in search of honey. So also I have frequently observed the mud dauber wasp erecting its clay cell upon a wall or building, making excursions to all points to secure mud for her masonry, and invariably return with her mandible hod full to complete her nidus. The same accuracy of memory, again, is shown when, having finished her nest, she prowls through all the neighbor- hood in search of spiders, winging her course to all points of the com- pass, prying into nooks and crannies and out of the way places, mousing under leaves and diving into flowers, and yet always directing her return course without the slightest hesitation to her mud daub cell. It is need- less to multiply such examples, and I only allude to them to show that in this respect the spider is not peculiar, but is gifted, like other Arthro- pods, with a memory sufficient for all the purposes of its life. Insect Memory. Il. Mr. F. M. Webster recently wrote me from the Ohio Agricultural Ex- periment Station (February 17th, 1892) a note which contributes an inter- esting item to the subject of mimicry as discussed Vol. IL, Chapter XII., especially under Color Mimicry and Mimicry of * Environment, page 367, A spider observed by him had mimicked the white excreta of birds so perfectly as to deceive this thoroughly trained and accurate observer. The color of the spider was whitish, with the dorsal abdominal portion clouded with blackish, exactly resembling a mass of bird droppings. The deception was further carried out by the spider having spun a thin irregular sheet of white web on an elm leaf, in the midst of which it was situated with legs drawn up. At the distance of a few feet the observer was completely deceived; he thought it the excre- ment of a bird until he had the leaf in his hand. The appearance of the semisolid mass within the white splash of semifluid matter was so closely counterfeited, that Mr. Webster says he was truly provoked that such an animal could so befool his eyes after all his years of training. Judging from the general description sent, I infer the species to be our old friend Misumena vatia, so famous both in America and elsewhere for its color mimicry. Mr. Webster’s observation is all the more interesting because of its exact correspondence with one of which he was not informed until I called his attention to it, which has received considerable attention from naturalists. Color Mimicry 48 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. Mr. Henry O. Forbes relates a similar experience of deception.1 He had been allured into a vain chase after a large stately flitting butterfly (Hestia) through a thicket of Pandanus horridus, when on a bush that obstructed further pursuit he observed one of the Hesperide resting on a leaf upon a splash of bird dropping. He had_ often observed small Blues at rest on similar spots on the ground, and had wondered what the members of such a refined and beautifully painted family (Lycenide) could find to enjoy in food so seemingly incongruous for a butterfly. He approached Mimicry with gentle steps and ready net to see, if possible, how the present or Bird individual was engaged. It permitted him to get quite close, xcreta. ee , . : and even to seize it between his fingers. To his surprise, however, part of the body remained behind; and in adhering, as he thought, to the excreta it recalled an observation of Mr. Wallace’s on certain Coleoptera falling a prey to their inexperience by boring in the bark of trees, in whose exuding gum they became unwittingly entombed. He looked closely at the excreta to find if it were glutinous, and finally touched it with the tip of his finger. To his delighted astonishment he found that his eyes had been most perfectly deceived, and that the excreta was a most artfully colored spider lying on its back, with its feet crossed over and closely adpressed to the body. The appearance of recent bird droppings on a leaf is well known. Its central and denser portion is a pure white chalk like color, streaked here and there with black, and surrounded by a thin border of the Ornitho- dried up more fluid part, which, as the leaf is rarely horizontal, sti: often runs a little way towards the margin. The spider observed by Mr. Forbes, like that seen by Mr. Webster, was pure chalk white in general color, with the lower portions of its first and second pairs of legs and a spot on the head and abdomen jet black.? It had woven on the surface of the leaf, after the fashion of its family, an irregularly shaped web of fine texture, which was drawn up towards the sloping mar- gin of the leaf into a narrow streak, with a slightly thickened termination. This form, as described by Mr. Forbes, was doubtless determined by the concavity of the leaf, and the facility which the slightly turned up edges gave for making good points of adhesion, at the same time leaving a little space between the netted spinningwork and the leaf’s surface over which it was stretched. According to Mr. Forbes, the spider takes its place on its back upon this irregular spinningwork, holding itself in position by means of the spinal armature of the legs thrust underneath the web, and crosses its legs over its thorax. I do not remember to have observed any Thomisoids in this position, but have always seen them crouching with back upward when not using a web. I would suppose that if they used 1 A Naturalist’s Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago, 1885, pages 63, 64. 2 Rey. O. P. Cambridge describes it as Ornithoscatoides decipiens. MIMICRY OF SPIDERS. 49 a snare at all they would rest underneath the same with their backs down- ward toward the leaf, after the fashion of many other spiders. However, Mr. Forbes is so precise in his statement that one feels it necessary to accept it. As thus arranged, he speaks of the whole combination of spider and web as being “so artfully contrived” as to deceive a pair of human eyes intently examining it. This similarity of habit in spiders of the same family, at such widely separated points as Java and the United States, is in itself interesting. It is also interesting to notice that two thoroughly trained observers A Case should have independently named the same rather outre object ofAn- as the one suggested by the spider’s mimicry. Nevertheless, one ahi is inclined to think that the suggestion of mimicry is a bit phism, Of anthropomorphism. Because suggested to the mind of the observer, it does not follow that any such deception had been devised by the spider. All the individuals of this family and tribe are in the habit of seeking their prey chiefly upon trees and plants of various sorts, stones, et cetera. They may often be found upon the white or whit- ish gray spots, or upon dried bits of lichen or moss found on plants. In such positions they certainly strongly suggest the idea of intentional mim- icry. However, in point of fact, the combination might have been acci- dental so far as the spider is concerned. In the cases observed by Messrs. Forbes and Webster there appears no reason to infer that so subtle a process as that attributed to the spider could have found lodgment in its mind. At least, if we accept Mr. Forbes’ theory of an artful contrivance, we must conclude that this lowly organized animal could intelligently survey the field, put this and that together, select certain spots for settlement after determining its own color resemblance to such spots; then deliber- ately proceed to spin a web which, in its general contour, would resemble the particular form which semifluid masses are wont to assume in various positions, according to the inclination of the plane upon which they fall ; and then, further, arrange its own body in such relation to the web as to present the appearance of mottled black and gray characteristic Mimicry of bird droppings under like circumstances. The ability for such een mental processes would undoubtedly establish an order of intellect and powers of observation and reasoning beyond those which we are at present warranted in attributing to a spider. All the facts can be accounted for, and are most naturally accounted for, without introducing a factor so strongly imaginary. I am disposed to think that the web as described was spun in an ordinary position, in the form habitual to the species, and in such locality as it usually frequents; moreover, that this was done without: any intention to perpetrate a mimicry such as the observer fancied, and which in fact existed simply as an analogy in his mind. 50 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. But excluding the idea of intentional deceit, the mimicry of Ornithosca- toides has been explained as a product of evolution through natural selection and survival of the fittest. The explanation implies that the Evolu- existence of those individuals practicing the mimicry at first and a nae accidentally had been preserved by the greater abundance of food imicry. 5 *) = or other advantage gained thereby, until it became a permanent habit. But we have only an inference that the habit is permanent in Ornithoseatoides. The facts recorded by Mr. Forbes stand entirely alone, and it seems more likely than otherwise that an extended observation of that spider would show that the same condition obtains as to its habits that we have observed in Misumena, and that it will be found to spin a web substantially as described by Mr. Forbes, in many positions which would preclude the supposition of usefulness through resemblance to the excreta of birds; as, for example, on the under side of leaves, underneath limbs of trees, between and under stones, hedges, etc. As to Misumena, we know that the case reported by Mr. Webster is abso- lutely unique as yet; knowing somewhat the general economy of this species we can confidently affirm that the incident is exceptional. Misu- mena spreads her cocoon nest in various positions, and is by no means limited to such locations as described by Professor Web- ster. One of these positions has been described and figured in Vol. IL, page 152, Fig. 188. The general form of the cocoon nest is as there exhibited, and in choosing the site thereof the mother appears to give herself as wide range as do other species of the order. In other words, she puts her cocoon and the nesting tube surrounding it in such place as is most convenient to herself when the maternal function urges her to action. The spinningwork described by Mr. Forbes I take to be the cocoon nest of Ornithoscatoides, for it is not the habit of the Laterigrades generally to get their food by means of snares, They belong to the Wandering group of spiders, and stalk their prey along shrubbery, branches of trees, rocks, walls, ete. If this inference be correct, the peculiar web observed by Mr. Forbes is limited to the cocooning period, at which time Laterigrade spiders . are usually found within or lurking around the little tent which overspins their egg sac. It must follow that the effect of industrial mimicry upon the preservation of that species must have been confined to a brief period at the end of the spider’s life. To account for such mimicry as a product of the survival of the fittest through natural selection, one needs to con- ceive of the selection as operative in the early and most impressible stages, or at least during the active period of life, and not during the few days immediately preceding death. The Mim- icry Ex- ceptional. IV. In the second volume of this work (Vol. IL, page 346) I ventured to express a suspicion, which I have sometimes entertained, that the color surroundings of the spider, in some manner not now explicable, may so MIMICRY OF SPIDERS. 51 rapidly influence the organism of the creature that a change of color is produced in harmony with its environment, I there raised this query: Can a spider have the power to influence at will the chromatophores or pigment bodies, so that she may change her color with the changing sites ? Mr. H. H. J. Bell has recently communicated an observation! which appears to be confirmatory of this suggestion. While traveling along the West Coast of Africa between two small towns on the Gold Coast (August, 1892), he was attracted by the appearance of what he supposed to be flowers upon the bushes bordering the path. On examining these he found that they were the webs of an orbweaving spider, whose spinningwork, according to the published description, resembles that of Argiope, as heretofore fully described by me. The spider’s body was a light blue color; and the legs, which were symmetrically disposed in the shape of an X across a white ribboned hub, were yellow, ringed with brown. The body of the spider resembled the corol of a flower, and the crossed legs gave it the semblance of petals. Mr. Bell speaks of the illusion as’ remarkable, and supposes this mimicry of an orchidlike flower serves not merely to protect the spider, but rather as an attraction to butterflies and other flower frequenting insects on which the aranead preys. The most interesting part of the observation, however, is the strange facility which the spider possessed of changing its color. Mr. Bell captured ns her in a white gauze collecting net, which was placed beneath ir eciiny her and into which she dropped when disturbed, as is the custom Pie sees of many species. As soon as she touched the net the blue body color became white. On being shaken her body turned to a dark greenish brown. She was then placed in a glass tube, and gradually resumed her blue tint, but when shaken up always turned to a greenish brown. When placed in spirits the spider’s color became a gray brown, and so remained. The observation was repeated with like result, except that the second individual did not turn white, but passed immediately from her normal blue into a dark greenish brown. I have no comments to make upon this interesting and, as it seems to me, important observation, but give it place here, as of undoubted value in its bearing upon the interest- ing and perplexing problem of mimicry as it is presented in the life history of the various aranead species. I have never observed and do not remem- ber ever to have read of such instant and volitional changes of color. The slight changes which I have noted in spiders haying metallic colors have been due to the play of light falling at and seen from different angles. The numerous and striking changes in the Shamrock spider (Epeira trifo- lium), so well illustrated in Plate I. of Vol. II., are produced gradually, and cannot be compared with the chameleonlike changes of the blue Orb- weaver observed by Mr. Bell. Flower Mimicry. 1 Nature, April 13th, 1893, page 558. 52 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. The trapdoor building habit is remarkable in its distribution over nearly every part of the globe in tropical and semitropical regions. From what- ever part reported, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, or North and Architec- South America, the nest shows the same peculiarities of structure, prsere and the architect appears to live in the same way. Even the habit of mimicking the surrounding surface by attaching sundry small plants is cosmopolitan. Moggridge in his charming book has already made us familiar with this form of mimicry in the European species; it seems also to characterize our southwestern trapdoors, and appears in Cambridge’s Idiops Colletti, a Burmese (India) spider. In the interesting description of General Collett, which Mr, Cambridge publishes, it is stated that the upper surface of the door is often covered with a dry black lichen growth. There are generally a few withered grass blades worked into the edge of the door, or into the edge of the mouth of the burrow, so as to form a kind of semicircular fringe, which often catches a practiced eye and leads to the detection of the hole. The grass blades are probably inserted to aid in assimilating the outside of the door to its surroundings, a pur- pose in which, General Collett opined, they certainly fail so far as the human animal is concerned. In a few cases he noticed also grass blades wrought into the general surface of the door, which in the dry A Rude season, when the grass is everywhere withered, certainly aid in Door : : ‘ Garden, its concealment. But during the season when the adjacent grass is green one would think that yellow withered grass blades on or near the burrow mouth would tend to make it conspicuous. I have con- sidered at some length, Vol. II., pages 354, 355, the point thus raised in- dependently by this intelligent observer, and its relation to so called mimicry of environment. I need only add here that one can hardly be asked to consider protection against human intelligence as a factor in the action of a spider’s mind. The hostile elements which influence it are of quite another sort from the curiosity of a naturalist and the plundering of a collector. VI. Since publishing my observations on the parasitic enemies of spiders (Vol. IL., page 391) a number of facts have come to my hands which I have thought well to embrace in these studies, and to add some general conclusions suggested by the subject. Mr. George Carter * Bignell? has favored me with an account of the manner in which Drassus lapidocolens Walckenaer was attacked by an ichneumon (8th Oc- tober (1890). While walking in the woods he noticed the spider suspended by a silken drop thread from the bough of a large oak. Looking for the Parasit- ism. 1 Proceed. Zool. Soc., Lond., 1889, page 37, pl. ii., Fig. 2. *7 Clarence Place, Stonehouse, Devon, England. a “ae PARASITES OF SPIDERS AND THEIR EGGS. 53 cause of such a situation, he found an ichneumon fly walking cautiously down the thread towards its victim. When close to the spider she touched it with her antennz, whereat Drassus dropped a few inches lower. Method ‘This movement gave better opportunity to see the ovipositing of of Ovi- ce : Se nidting: the parasitic egg. ‘The fly, having apparently ascertained that she had found a suitable subject, turned round and walked back- wards until close to the spider, where she paused a few moments, and then deposited her egg on its abdomen close to the cephalothorax. Mr. Bignell boxed both insect host and aranead guest, and took them home. Two days afterwards the egg had hatched, and the larva ‘was about one line in length. A day or two thereafter both larva and spider were found dead. The strangest fact in the above story is that the spider would permit the fly to thus approach it without attack. The insect would seem to have been within its power, yet it forebore to strike. Was it made inactive by fear? By what spell did the mother parasite procure this rare exemption ? The same gentleman, while beating for larvae of Lepidoptera, found an Orbweaver, Epeira cucurbitina Clerck, which had been attacked by an ex- ternal parasite. This lay like a sack across its guest’s back, reminding one of a miller’s man carrying a bag of flour. It was taken May 22d (1882), and on the 24th it was full fed. On the 23d it was figured Fic. 40. Parasitic larva of and described (Fig. 40), and found to have no legs, — *°¥*Phinct# tuberosa. but in place thereof had sucking discs, two on the second segment and four on the third and fourth. Six of these occupied the usual A Para- place of the legs of larve; the other four were half covered with pial the skinfold usually seen on lepidopterous larve. .On its back "were tubercles, the first on the fourth segment, the others on the seven following ones; each tubercle was surmounted with two rings of hooklets, with three or four in the centre. These served the larva to sus- pend itself from the round snare while feeding on its victim, and to hold on to the web after it was consumed. When all the juices of the spider’s body had been extracted the legs and empty skin were allowed to fall down. The larva then commenced to make itself a cocoon which was finished by the third day, during which time the tubercles performed a prominent role, having to do the work of the claspers of an ordinary caterpillar. When a tentacle, attached to the silken cord, had to be removed, the hooklets were withdrawn into the tentacle, which at once became disen- gaged and ready to make another attachment. The anal segment often played an important part by being brought round to the assistance of the mouth; this act was first seen while the larva was feeding, and its purpose was to disengage some adhering portion of the spider from its jaws. Afterwards it was frequently used while spinning to unite the silk to some narrow part of the cocoon, where the © 54 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. blunt head of the larva was too large to make an attachment. When full fed the larva was about three-eighths of an inch lorfg, and had fourteen segments, counting the head as one. The cocoon was shuttle shaped, whitish and thin, the spider’s original web forming its suspending cords; the movements of the larva and pupa were perceptible through the cocoon. The perfect, fly appeared on the 12th of June, and proved to be a female of Polysphincta tuberosa Gravenhorst. VI. Mr. John L. Curtis,! of Oakland, California, has written me an inter- esting account of a new body parasite taken upon a species of Theridioid spider, Labulla inconstans.? The spider is quite common in the re- gion surrounding San Francisco, and domiciles in large leaves, the edges and ends of which it bends downward, and fastens with a sheet of web composed of many white threads spun across from side to side. ‘The cocoon, which is round and white, is woven within this maze, and is jealously watched by the mother, a small spider of a light gray color, with pinkish tints on the legs and a tinge of yellow on the abdomen. Body Par- asite. Fic. 41. Parasite cocoon in site, natural size. Fig: 42. The same, enlarged greatly. Fic. On July 13th (1890) a specimen was 43. The pupa. found upon whose abdomen was fixed a° large yellow larva. By the 15th the larva had entirely consumed the spider and spun itself into its cocoon. (Figs. 41, 42, 43.) On the 17th it changed to chrysalis, and on the 27th of the month hatched. The cocoon is a cylin- drical case of loose fibres, and hung suspended, head downward, upon lines stretched within the bottle wherein it was bred. Mr. E.'T. Cresson, of Phila- delphia, has identified the parasite insect thus hatched as a probably new species of Polysphincta, a genus of Pimplinz, a subfamily of the great family Ichneumonide. It is obvious that in order to deposit her egg upon the body of the spider, this mother Ichneumonid must have successfully threaded the labyrinth of intercrossed lines and obtained a favorable _posi- tion underneath the abdomen. A delicate piece of aranead scouting this! 1T regret to record the death of this promising young Maturalist since writing this note. Though an incurable invalid he was an enthusiastic lover of araneology, and had already done some good work therein. 2 Dr. George Marx thus determines the genus, and the specific name is that suggested by Mr. Curtis. = i PARASITES OF SPIDERS AND THEIR EGGS, 55 I here refer to another figured body parasite, which was overlooked when preparing the material on parasitic enemies for Vol. Il. Mr. L. O. Howard, of the Entomological Department of the Bureau of Ag- The Dic- yiculture, Washington, has described and figured! Polysphincta tyna Par- 4; ; : c Gorge : Rae he, é , dsifio: ictynee and its parasitic larva feeding upon Linyphia communis. (Figs. 44 and 45.) The fly was raised from a larva found on a young Dictyna volupis Keyserling. When taken, May 15th (1887), the larva was about half as long as the spider’s abdomen and about one-fourth as thick. It was attached by the mouth to the front of the abdomen. May 18th the host was dead and the larva full grown, larger than the spider had been, and had begun to spin a cocoon. May 25th it changed to a pupa, and the fly came out June Ist following. The adult parasite is a beautiful little male two and five-tenths millimetres long. The sketch, as copied from “ Insect Life,” shows .the posi- tion which the para- sitic larva assumed on the spider. In the col- lection in which the above species was tak- en Mr. Howard found five other small spiders, four of which support- Fie. 44. FIG. 45. ed parasitic larvee upon Fis. 44. Polysphincta dictyne much enlarged. Fic. 45. Larval parasite the: doram ‘of tho-ab- on young spider, Dictyna volupis. (After Howard.) domen, and one delicate cocoon from which a parasitic larva had been taken. In the same journal? Mr. Howard reported another species of Poly- sphincta found by Dr. W. H. Fox, of Washington, D. C., upon a young specimen of Steatoda borealis. The larva was slender, cylindrical, white, one millimetre long, apparently less than half grown, and was attached to its host substantially as above described. It was taken in February, which would indicate a larval hibernation of the parasite. Mr. Howard has described still another species of Polysphincta, P. strigis, whose habits were quite fully observed. Mr. Nathan Banks found the larva of this species feeding externally upon Epeira strix, at Parasite Sea Cliff, Long Island, May 11th, 1891. At the time of capture —— the parasitic larva was considerably larger than the spider; it ; spun up May 14th. When brought to Mr. Howard (May 18th) the cocoon was completed in the vial in which Mr. Banks had placed the specimen ; it was spun of dense yellow brown silk, was six millimetres long, cylindrical, two millimetres in diameter and rounded at both ends. It 1 Insect Life, Vol. I., page 106, 2 Insect Life, Vol. I., page 42. 56 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. was suspended by a loose band of darker colored coarser silk, seven milli- metres long, and from the end of this band a few threads reached to the bottom, twenty-seven millimetres, and sides of the vial. The abdomen of the spider was reduced to the merest fragment, but the cephalothorax and legs remained. May 25th the adult issued from one end of the cocoon. The cocoon of P. dictynee mentioned above was about the same size and had a smaller supporting band, but was composed of white silk, and was much more delicate, nearly transparent. 1 The beautiful Argiope argentata may be added to the list of spiders whose cocoons are parasitized. Dr. A. Davidson sent me from Los Angeles, California, a fine large cocoon, which upon opening the box I Parasite found to be occupied by a numerous brood of small black Ich- in: Bee neumonids, which proved to be a species of Eupelmus.? It is ope Co- . ; : ; nee jet black, glossy, with a metallic lustre. The female is much larger and stouter than the male. These insects were domiciled within the yellow floss which pads the interior of the cocoon, and had probably been reared from naked pup, as no pupal cases were found. Several dead pupz in at least two stages of development, a number of infertile spider eggs, and a quantity of castings and disjecta membra of the pup were strung throughout the padding surrounding the central cavity in which the Ichneumons were congregated. Among these interlopers, or crawling upon the surrounding fibres, were a few (six or eight) living spi- derlings, the feeble remainder of the original colony. These as well as the parasites were probably hatched en route from California in the mail bag. Dr. Davidson took the spider cocoon on Catalina Island, California, where the species is abundant. It spins its webs in cacti, and the cocoons are always placed some distance from and behind the snare (“around i ok the corner, as it were”), upon one of the plants to which the a: °- foundation lines are attached. The cocoons are never hung upon the orb as with the specimen spun for me in captivity, and de- scribed Vol. II., page 84. The same gentleman remarks that the cocoons so closely resemble in coloring the cactus as to make them almost difficult to find; and he thinks it an example of concealment by mimicry of colors. However, cocoons of the species received from various ane of California have the same general hues, yellow, with more or less gaan, quite regard- less of their situation. In the above case the “ protective” resemblance did not protect, as appeared. from the vigorous brood of invading Ichneumonids.* : Howard: “The Hyrienoptarcus Parasites of Spiders,” Proceed. Entom. Soc., Washing. ton, Vol.II., No. 3. 2 Eupelmus piceus. Described by Mr. L. O. Howard. *See Examples, Vol. IL., pl. iv. 4 Mr. Howard expresses the opinion, through a letter to Mr. E. T. Cresson, that although many species of Eupelmus are egg parasites, still others are hyperparasitic; and judging from the size of the above species he thinks that it is probably a parasite upon some Pimpla which was the primary parasite in the spider cocoon. PARASITES OF SPIDERS AND THEIR EGGS. 57 From the above examples of life history, which are fairly characteristic, one may get the following summary of habits, which, while open to correc- tion at some points, is substantially accurate: 1. The parasite mother passes from point to point in search of a suitable host with a rapid, jerky, intense action; 2. discovering her victim she deposits an egg upon the Sum- abdomen, 3. and in so doing: she will creep along the lines of et Aa , spinningwork to the point where the spider is suspended, 4. When near her victim she backs down thereto and deposits but one egg upon each host, which is placed upon the abdomen close to the cephalothorax. 5. In about two days the egg hatches into a footless, white larva, which in some cases creeps within the body, probably by some of the natural open- ings, and becomes an internal parasite. 6, The external parasite fastens upon the dorsal base or dorsum of the anterior part of the spider’s abdomen, and in two or three days wholly consumes that soft organ, meanwhile growing rapidly, and then begins to spin its cocoon. 7. The cocoon is cylindrical, about six millimetres long and two thick, woven of open and loose white or yellowish silk, and is suspended to the spider’s web or other object by a slight band, braced beneath by a similar support. 8. The spinning occu- pies from one to three days, several days are spent in the pupal change, and in about a week the imago appears. 9. It is probable that some larval parasites which are hatched late in the autumn hibernate with their hosts. The habits of those parasitic Ichneumonids which infest spider eggs cannot be summarized with even as much satisfaction as the*body para- _ sites, but the following may at least suggest something better. Egg Para-) Soon after the spider mother has laid and enclosed her eggs, sites : . : aA Scenary and sometimes probably during oviposition, the _Ichneumon mother inserts her eggs, penetrating the cocoon case when necessary with her ovipositor, and leaving a number of eggs or the entire brood within a single cocoon. 2, Each egg harbors one parasite, which in certain species" enters it as soon as the larval appetite awakes and entirely destroys it. 3. In some species it would appear that the larval parasites feed upon the eggs indiscriminately, and then spin stiff, close, white cocoons, through which the imago gnaws a hole and escapes from the spider cocoon in the same way. 4, These parasites are in turn exposed to parasitism from other members of the Ichneumonid family.” VIII. -Mr. Howard has kindly furnished me a list of known American and European hymenopterous parasites of spiders.* Some of these, together with those heretofore referred to, I have arranged as below, with a view 1 Acoloides saitides Howard. 2 See Vol. II., page 395. 8 Since this manuscript was prepared Mr. Howard has published his revised list and my table has been corrected thereby. 58 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. to a readier comparison from which to get clearer light, if possible, upon some questions on the general relations between hosts and* guests.1 The first column gives the name of the spider, when known, the second column the name of the parasite, the third column the character of the parasitism :— Argiope cophinaria. “ “ Argiope argentata. Epeira cavatica. Epeira (unknown). “ “ Epeira cavatica. Epeira strix (?). “ “ Epeira diademata. “ “ Epeira cucurbitina. Epeira antriada (?). Epeira cucurbitina. — Epeira angulata. “ “ Epeirid cocoon. Theridium spirale (?). Theridium (unknown). Steatoda borealis. Linyphia communis. Labulla inconstans. Theridium Theridium Dictyna volupis. Micaria (unknown). ORBWEAVERS. Pezomachus (?) n. sp. Pimpla rufopectus. Pimpla scriptifrons, Mestocharis wilderi. Chrysocharis banksii. Chrysocharis pikei. — Eupelmus piceus. Large unknown larva. Pimpla rufopectus. Holcopelte nitens.* Beeus americanus. Pezomachus dimidiatus (?). Pezomachus gracile (?). Polysphincta keekelei. Polysphincta strigis. Hemiteles similis.* Hemiteles tristator.* Pimpla oculatoria.* Polysphincta bodps.* Polysphincta carbonator.* Polysphincta rufipes.* Polysphincta carbonator. “ “ * Polysphincta tuberosa.* Pimpla aquilonia (?). Mestocharis wilderi. Tetraslichus banksii.* LINEWEAVERS. Polysphincta n. sp. Pezomachus fasciatus.* Poly sphincta n. sp. “ “ “ “ Polysphincta theridii. Polysphincta bodps.* TUBEWEAVERS. Polysphincta dicty nee. Pezomachus micarize. ‘Those species marked with stars (*) are European species. * Within the body. Howard. 4 Hyperparasitic. Howard. Egg parasite. “ “ . Body parasite.? Egg parasite. Body parasite. “ - “ “ Egg parasite. “ “ Body parasite. “ “ * Probably byperparasitic, primarily infesting some Ichneumonid in the spider’s cocoon, PARASITES OF SPIDERS AND THEIR EGGS. Micaria (unknown), “ “ Prosthesima furcata. Drassid (unknown). Drassus lapidicolens. Agrceca brunnea. “ “ Pezomachus obscurus. Hemiteles micarivora. Hemiteles prosthesimie, Hemiteles drassi. Polysphincta tuberosa.* Hemiteles tenerrimus.* Hemiteles aranearum.* Dy ia parasite. “ “ “ “ “ Body parasite. Egg parasite, “ Hemiteles formosus.* Pezomachus fasciatus.* Pezomachus corruptor.* Pezomachus proximus. « Pezomachus zonatus.* . Eupelmus drassi. a = Body parasite. Egg parasite. Drassid (unknown). LATERIGRADE, SALTIGRADE, CITIGRADE. Laterigrade cocoon. Teius (unknown). Pezomachus gracile. Polysphincta n. sp. Egg parasite. Body parasite. Saitis pulex. Acoloides saitides. Egg Parsee: Phidippus ‘morsitans. * ~ Pardosa luteola. Polysphincta Body parasite. IX. It is difficult to make any correct generalizations from the data in hand on this most interesting chapter in the biology of spiders, since the species Generali. °* CVn genus of the host is in so many cases unknown, even zations, When the parasite has been determined. But a few hints appear from the study of the above lists and preceding facts which may serve to at least open the way for others who in the future may have more perfect information. First, it is evident that the exclusive occupation of a specific host by a specific guest is not the fixed rule. For example, the eggs of Argiope co- phinaria are parasitized by one species of Pezomachus, two of Pimpla, and two (though perhaps as hyperparasites) of Chrysocharis. Again, Epeira diademata of Europe serves as body host for three species of Polysphincta, and its eggs as host of one each of Hemiteles and Pimpla. Once more, Agreeca brunnea of Europe has one species of Hemiteles for a body para- site (?), and for egg parasites two species of Hemiteles and three of Pezomachus. Thus it would appear that the occupation of any specified host is not limited to any specific guest, but has a wide possible range, both as to species and genera. Second, the preference of any specific quest is not always confined to one specific host. Thus, Polysphincta carbonator, a European body parasite, is reported as guest upon three species of Epeira ; and Polysphincta bodps upon both Theridion and Epeira. Third, the quests are not absolutely separated by their habits into distinct groups of body parasites, on the one hand, and nest parasites on the other. Thus, Polysphincta carbonator is a body parasite upon three Epeiroid species, but is reported as a guest upon unknown spider eggs; P. rulipes 60 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. is parasitic on Epeira diademata and also upon supposed spider cocoons ; Pezomachus fasciatus is guest within the egg nests of Agreeca brunnea, and on a species of Theridion; Hemiteles similis parasitizes Epeira diademata and an unknown spider cocoon. Hemiteles rufocinctus, H. fulvipes, and H. formosus are reported as body parasites, while other species of the genus are parasitic upon spider eggs. This generalization appears to me remark- able, and contrary to what one would naturally suppose from the ordinary specialization of such instincts. If correct, it shows much elasticity of habit among these parasitic Hymenoptera, for there would seem to be an immense distance on the maternal side between the instincts which prompt to the several acts; and on the side of the offspring, between development within a spider’s egg and within a spider’s body. Mr. Howard, who was kind enough to look over this part of my manu- script, expresses the doubt here suggested in a more positive way. He thus writes me: “None of the spider Pimplas are typical, but belong to a restricted group, possibly a subgenus, all of which, I believe, are parasitic in spider egg bags. All of the Polysphincta, in my opinion, are external parasites of spiders; and this genus, with the genus Acrodactylus, I believe contains all of the external hymenopterous spider parasites.” This opinion from such an authority would justify the omission of the above inference ; but as the facts as reported are not changed in Mr. Howard’s published lists, I permit the item to remain as qualified. The observations of early date which here compose the list are probably erroneous; and, indeed, they are confessedly defective. Fourth, the general spinning and other characteristics of spider species appear to make no marked difference in liability to parasitic attack. Such sedentary spiders as Epeira, Theridion, and Agreeca are not exempt Relations from body parasites by their occupation of snares, Yet, in such se ig cases, one wonders how the ingenuity of the insects’ maternal Habits, instinct could overcome, as we know it does, the local difficulties, and drop an egg upon the spider’s body while swinging upon or lurking within its web. The difficulty is not lessened, but rather enhanced, if we suppose that some of the parasitic larve are traveling parasites, and seek their hosts after independent hatching. The condition of the wingless female parasite would appear to make her task more formidable, but does not limit her ovipositing to periods when the spiders are off their snares and reposing on adjacent objects, or within their dens and tents. Fifth, the special cocooning habits of spiders appear to have no relation to their exposure to parasitic attack. Here, also, one meets apparently con- tradictory facts. For example, the egg cocoon of Argiope Of Co- cophinaria is one of the most skillfully constructed to protect ues the enclosed young. (See Vol. II., pages 76-80.) The eggs are encased in a silken sheet, overlapped by a thick, compact oval blanketing, which in turn is encased in a tough glazed sac. The whole is PARASITES OF SPIDERS AND THEIR EGGS. 61 then encompassed with a maze of closely intercrossed lines, which to the human judgment seems impenetrable by the mother hymenopter. Yet this cocoon is among those most frequently parasitized. Of course, one is always at liberty to offer as explanation the suggestion that this very exposure to attack has, in the struggle for survival, produced the evolution of the more perfectly armored cocoons. In short, . “a there has been a conflict between the mother aranead and the for a mother hymenopter, something like that between defensive plate vival. 2rmor on battle ships and offensive projectiles. The difficulty with such an explanation is to establish a point of contact be- tween mother, offspring, and the facts of life from which to postulate con- ceivable interaction and reaction. The theory craves an available pou sto. The danger, if apprehended at all, would only be discerned by the eggs, which are the objects attacked ; moreover, the impression must be conveyed through those eggs within the parasitized cocoon which were fortunate enough to escape destruction. To suppose that the reactionary influence of environment could thus operate through a sensitive egg to a conscious spiderling, and so to the maternal instinct of the adult female, and thus on by heredity, through infinitesimal increments of the protective wards and armor of a silk enswathed or mud daub cocoon, lays a rather heavy burden upon the scientific imagination, even in this heyday age of evolu- tionism. The possibility of cocoon evolution by transmittal through the adult mother need not be considered; for in the case of the above named species, and most others upon the list, the mother is necessarily eliminated from the problem. In point of fact, she usually dies immediately, or soon after ovipositing and cocooning, and knows nothing of her offspring or their dangers save by anticipative instinct, that foreordination in Nature which is everywhere so manifest in life habits. Perhaps one might be permitted to approach the problem from another direction, and suggest that instead of the instinct of the parasitic hymen- opter reacting upon the spider mother to cause increased cocoon safeguards, that instinct simply perceives the well armored cocoon and selects it as the one most secure for her own progeny. The cocoon of Agreeca brunnea (see Vol. Il., page 124) is also well devised to preserve the enclosed eggs, and withal is overcoated by the little mother with a plaster of mud, which adds to the protection of armoring that of mimicry. Yet this spider’s eggs give hospitality to no less than six parasitic species, showing it to be especially assailable, or at least espe- cially available for such purposes. In this case, however, we can suggest a reason ; for although the spider’s cocoon is so well armored, the mode of suspending it (see Figs. 134, 135, Vol. II.) permits the mother parasite to approach it with comparative ease, by crawling along the foot stalk from the plant on which it hangs. Indeed, speaking generally, one would infer that the cocoons of Tubeweavers and such other species as are placed 62 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. directly upon various surfaces without tented enclosures, or like special pro- tection, would be most exposed to hymenopterous assault. In point of fact, these genera are numerously represented in the lists of parasitized spider eggs; but until more facts are in hand it is impossible to say whether the proportion is greater or less than, for example, with the Orb- weavers and Lineweavers, whose methods of protection are in this respect so different. Sixth, the personal carriage of the cocoon by Lycosids would seem to be an important factor in preserving the eggs. At least I have not found a single reported case of parasitization in cocoons of species having this habit, which might be owing to poverty of observation rather than of existing facts. Some of the reported parasitized cocoons we know to be personally guarded by the mother, as in the case of Salti- grades, who usually stay within their silken cells with their eggs, and, for awhile after hatching, with the young also. Occasional excursions for food, however, might afford the required opportunity to the mother parasite. Cocoon Carriage. CHAPTER III. BIOLOGICAL MISCELLANY. I, Recent observations extend our knowledge of the Hymenoptera that store spiders in the maternal nest. Mr. William J. Fox has published a list? of five species belonging to the one family of Pompillidw. These are Pompillus /ithiops Cresson, P. biguttatus Fabr, P. margin- atus Say, Priocnemis pompilius Cresson, and P. germanus Cresson. The first named species was taken in the act of capturing a large Lycosid ; the second while carrying a small silvery spider, apparently a young Argiope argyraspis. It is probable that all of this family prey upon spiders, a fact which vastly enlarges the number of hymenopterous enemies which wage warfare upon the order Aranes. It is so much the fashion to look upon spiders with disfavor, as a cunning, fierce, and relentless enemy of insects, to whom our sympathy rather goes forth, that we are apt to forget that poor Arachne is herself the victim of a remorseless fierceness and cunning on the part of insect families which far exceeds her own. Mr. Francis R. Welsh has favored me with a vivid description of the manner in which the arachnophagous wasps pursue their prey. The pur- suer in this case was a black wasp whose name was not known, and the spider was Agalena nevia. Agalena’s web was spun about four inches above the ground among plants and was of the usual form, that Wasps: is, a horizontal sheet pierced by a tube, and having numerous Pursuit i Ben ( OF Spider. stay lines rising several inches above the sheeted floor. For fully fifteen minutes the wasp pursued the spider under and over the leaves and web. On a straight dash the former was quicker in move- ment, but the latter beat her whenever the conditions would not permit her to fly, though she also ran surprisingly fast. At the end of the first round the spider escaped from the web unseen, and hid among some plants and stones about three feet away. The wasp beat about the web for a few minutes, and thence passed to some neighboring webs, and finally traversed the ground near the original web until she flushed her quarry. The observer thought that the spider bolted before the wasp saw it, but the pursuer must have been very close at the time. Agalena got safely back to its web, and the second round began and lasted about ten minutes, when it Spider Enemies. 1 Entomological News, Vol. 1, page 145. (63) 64 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. again escaped unseen, ran in between some stones a foot distant, and dis- appeared. The wasp beat about as before for five minutes, and gave up the chase. The wasp seemed to have more staying powers than the spider, but the latter made up for this by hiding and resting. The spider would hide until the wasp spied it or came near; it would also rest under its web, hanging thereto, but never stopped elsewhere longer than a second or two, except on the two occasions when it entirely left the web. The wasp nearly caught the spider a number of times; it certainly must have touched it five or six times, but could never get a firm hold. When the spider hid, the wasp started to search over and under the leaves, and seemed very keen sighted. The spider did some excellent dodging over the edge of its web and over the leaves, but never attempted to double upon its track, The wasp was always in motion; the spider hid and rested when it could, and seemed to know pretty well where its pursuer was and when it was seen by her. The wasp tried several times to get over the web at the spider, but without success. Sey- eral times the spider escaped by slipping . through its web. The wasp evidently depended on sight alone; the spider on sight and, as the observer believes, largely on the vibration of the air and of the web. Fia. 46. Snare and nest of Epeira beccarii. II. The tendency of orbweaving spiders to develop the hub of their snares into a tubular passageway between the orb and the nesting tent has been referred to as characteristic of Epeira labyrinthea. (See Vol. L., A Tube- page 141.) The Messrs. Workman! have noted and figured oe another illustration of this, which is even more decided than weaver, that: displayed by the Labyrinth spider. Epeira beccarii Thorell was found in considerable numbers growing at the side of the Deli Road, about two miles from Singapore. Their snares (Fig. 46) are dish shaped horizontal orbs, with the concavity upward. The hub is ele- vated into a cornucopia like shape, the top of which is slightly curved, About half way up this tube the egg cocoon is placed. Below the snare is a network of retitelarian lines larger than the orb, which is eight inches in diameter. The central tube reaches a length of three inches. It is braced to the surrounding twigs and leaves and thus kept upright. 1 Malaysian Spiders. By Thomas and M. E. Workman, Belfast, Ireland, 1892. BIOLOGICAL MISCELLANY. 65 Mr. Workman says that the wonderful regularity of the circular snare and the beautiful curve of the ascending tube, together with its perfect adaptation to the means of supplying food and protection to its constructor and her progeny, make it a most interesting object. He justly compares the web to that of the Labyrinth spider 3 of Hentz, and the resemblance certainly is striking. But . the web of Epeira labyrinthea is always placed in a ver- tical position. The retitelarian labyrinth is therefore behind and at the side of the orb, instead of before it. The thickly lined gangway between the tent and the centre of the orb of Labyrinthea I have never seen developed into a complete tube, such as Mr. Workman describes, but it is often much thickened next the hub, and is apt re. 47. sitting posi- to assume a somewhat tubular form. At the tenting end, “onst Me hubofa however, the spider frequently occupies a bell shaped silken domicile. The reader in this connection is referred to Vol. I., Chapter XIX., in which the tubiform web is referred to as being the rudimentary one which appears more or less distinctly, and with greater or less development, in the spinningwork of all the principal groups of spiders. Let the reader compare Mr. Workman’s drawing of Epeira beccarii with my figures of Agalena neevia (Vol. I., page 345, Fig. 336), or with examples of the ; spider’s funnel shaped snare upon the hedges, lawns, and fields of America. He will then observe that by reversing Workman’s figure he has before him substantially the outlines of Agalena’s funnel shaped snare. We thus have represented in the spinningwork of this one species the typical webs of the three great sectional groups: Orbweavers, Lineweavers, and Tube- weavers. III. Orbweavers are sometimes seen as represented at Figs. 47 and 48, in an attitude which might prop- ..... erly be called sitting within their hub. a hier Sh The upper part of the central meshes is Hatteiken hub. usually removed, and the abdomen is thrust through the opening, and is supported by the remain- ing meshwork against which the venter rests. The hind legs are extended upward, and hang upon the margin of the opening, while the fore feet are more closely approximated and clasp the margin at its lower part. The radial lines are centred upon these fore feet, thus giving the spider full command of her nest. The moment an insect strikes the orb the spider draws up her abdomen, and with inconceivable rapidity spreads out her legs, straightens out her body, and faces towards the direction from which the agitation of the web had been signaled. 66 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. This sitting position is not unusual, but is not common; I have noticed several species which appear at times to indulge in it. The attitudes of the body, while substantially like those figured, vary somewhat accord- ing to circumstances. Epeira vertebrata, E. arabesca, and E. benjamina are some of the Orbweavers observed in this posture. No doubt the position gives a grateful relief from the ordinary attitude, by changing the direction of tension, if nothing more. IV. Under examples given in Vol. I., illustrating the physical and mechan- ical powers of spiders, was a case of a small fish captured by a species of Dolomede or Lycosid spider. The case has excited much in- a ish terest, and it is gratifying to have it stipported by a like well Spi ea = authenticated instance. Mr, Francis R. Welsh, of Philadelphia, writes me that a spider once killed two sun fish, each about two inches long, that he had in a basin in his room. After having attacked the first fish it ran over the water and fastened upon the second, which was also at the time apparently well and vigorous. Mr. Welsh drove the spider off, but the fishes died in a few hours. The basin was kept in a second story room of a country house at Chestnut Hill, and climbing vines covered the outer walls, nearly approaching a window close by the basin. It was inferred that the aranead entered the window from the vines. Mr. Welsh could not identify the spider, and could describe it only in a general way; but judging from the figures in my books he supposed it might have been either a Dolomedes or Agalena nevyia. It would be entirely possible for the former animal to accomplish the deed, for in the cocoon- ing season Dolomedes lurks in the bushes near her egg nest (Vol. IL, page 145), spun among the leaves. One would hesitate, however, to think of Agalena as a creature of amphibious habits. The same gentleman, referring to the engineering habits of spiders, as described Vol. I., page 211, and especially of the use of counterpoise, tells me that he saw a spider one day cut a dead leaf out of its web, Counter- which was dropped and hung by several threads. It then cut it eae down again twice, the leaf each time dropping and hanging lower. Mr. Welsh could not see if the spider attached any special threads _ to the leaf, but she ultimately used it as a counterpoise to her snare. V. Many Orbweavers have a curious habit of moving themselves rapidly upon their webs when excited by any cause which attracts their attention or awakens fear. It is particularly noticeable in the genera Argiope and Acrosoma. This action occurs when the spider is stationed at the centre BIOLOGICAL MISCELLANY. 67 of her hub, and is in the following manner: The body is bowed or arched a little more than is usual when in that position, and then is set . in motion in such wise as to cause the web to move back and ys ‘Body. forth swinging upon its foundation lines. The motion is at first slow, and is rapidly increased until communicated to the whole web, which is oscillated at times so violently that the form of the spider becomes indistinct. This motion is continued for several minutes, the period varying in length. Mr. Muybridge, distinguished for his observa- tion upon the motions of animals, informed me that he once watched a female Argiope cophinaria in continuous oscillation on her snare for a half hour. The oscillation of the orbs by Argiope appears to be accomplished by lifting the abdomen up and down, or rather back and forth,‘from the web, and the alternate slackening and drawing taut of the line which connects the spinnerets with the central silken shield. At the same time the legs are alternately bent together and stretched out, thus drawing the orb in and repelling it. These movements of the spider of course put the orb in oscillation, and when rapidly repeated it moves back and forward with great rapidity. Among Lineweavers this habit takes the form of a rapid whirling of the body within the snare. The species most addicted to this habit is our common long legged cellar spider, Pholeus phalangioides. This creature hangs upon its snare of large loosely netted cross lines with its back downwards. Its feet, which are stretched upward from the body, by reason of the great length of the legs clasp these lines well together. Then begins a circular motion of the body. This at first is slow, but is rapidly increased until the body whirls around in circles so rapidly that it can scarcely be distinguished from the whole mass of agitated lines, legs, and body, which resembles a revolving cone. The manner in which the motion is produced is probably the same in both tribes here mentioned, but the nature of the Orbweaver’s web is such that the motion is limited by the upper and lower foundation lines within which it is set, and is so compounded as to compel the orb to a lateral or pendulum like movement; that is, a movement perpendicular to the plane of the orb. In the case of Pholeus, however, the web of right lines per- mits the body to revolve in circles which are parallel to the plane of the horizon. b This habit is doubtless protective, and probably serves to confuse attack- ing Hymenoptera, birds, and other enemies, and thus avert their aim or drive them from the position by the unwonted agitation of the the Habit. web. But its origin and chief purpose are probably connected with the taking of prey. The swaying of the web must aid to entangle more completely a victim which strikes it, since it stimulates the captive to increase its struggles and thus more effectively to fasten itself to Whirling Move- ment. 68 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. the treacherous viscid or adherent lines. The action must also tend in some measure to locate the position of a victim. Can it possibly at times tend to produce a current of air into which insects are attracted? At all events, when Pholcus phalangioides is annoyed by being touched with pencil or finger, she is pretty sure to begin moving her body, and in a little while is swinging herself around, her body describing a circle which represents the base of a cone, of which the point whereat her clustered feet hold on to her line will be the apex. VI. Professor Wilder relates an ‘interesting example of the tendency of young Argiope cophinaria to make excursions from the egg enclosure when oppor- tunity presents. Numerous cocoons were found at James Island, South Carolina, which had been torn open by birds to get nest building material. From the breach fragmentary wads and rolls of silk floss protruded, along which the spiderlings crawled, and finding themselves in the fresh air and sunshine concluded to enjoy the same. They would swing down from the projecting roll in long festoons, singly, or sometimes clinging to one another like bees when they swarm, but always retained their connection with the cocoon, to which they returned when satisfied with their taste of sunlight and liberty.1_ One is inclined to note here a_ judicious mingling of conservative caution with youthful sportiveness. Baby Spiders. Fic. 49. Baby spiders on a holiday excursion. h (Adapted from Wilder.) VIL. In Vol. I. of this work were considered the poison apparatus of spiders and the effects of their poison upon animals and man. Since then numer- ous contributions upon the general subject have been made by many persons, from widely separated parts. Some of the most valuable of these have been published in “ Insect Life,” the offi- cial journal of the Entomological Bureau of the United States Department of Agriculture. These leave the facts substantially as generalized by me, and my own view thereof is therefore unchanged, as follows: The poison secreted by spiders is sparingly used, and it is not necessary for securing prey; its object is probably chiefly defensive, and its effect upon creatures of its own rank and size may often be serious and fatal; the effect upon Spider Poison. ‘ Harper’s Magazine, March, 1867, page 458. BIOLOGICAL MISCELLANY. 69 human beings has no doubt been greatly exaggerated, and by far the great- est number of species are harmless to the vast majority of men; neverthe- less, there is no reason to doubt that .a few species secrete a poisonous fluid which is unusually virulent in its action upon men, producing painful, serious, and, rarely, even fatal wounds. These exceptions are so few that they give no warrant, or the very slightest, for the almost universal dread of spiders of all sorts and sizes. Man has no more and probably much less reason to fear injury from these animals than from ordinary irritating insects, and on the other hand is immensely their debtor by their services in holding in check the increase of the insect hordes. It will suffice here to note one well authenticated instance of injurious results from spider poison, as reported by the distinguished arachnologist, Professor Bertkau, of Bonn, This naturalist has recently found Professor on grass and leaves, near Bingen on the Rhine, a number of Bertkau’s : Lae i : ; ; ; Experi. ‘Pecies of Chiraianthium nutrix, which occurs also in Switzer- “ence. land, France, and Italy, and has assured himself that the species is poisonous. He was bitten on his finger ends three times by these spiders. The pain was severe, burning, and extended almost instan- taneously over the arm and to the breast, and was most intense in the wound itself and in the armpits. On the second morning after the second bite the pain disappeared, but returned upon pressure of the bitten spot, and changed to an itching sensation. When he was bitten again, four days later, both the pain and afterward the itching, especially, returned in the first two bites, and this time continued for almost a fortnight, when all unusual feeling had disappeared, while the later bites, which had festered, were still visible. The results immediately following the bite were a slight swelling and inflammation, which gradually disappeared. It is highly satisfactory to find a case of this kind described by a careful and distin- guished specialist like Professor Bertkau, and indubitably traced to a defi- nite species, instead of attributed to the inevitable and indefinite black spider. Per contra, a well known fellow citizen, and intelligent associate of our Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, Mr. Francis R. Welsh, thus writes me, apropos of the observations contained in my first vol- ume: “When I was a small boy one of my friends and myself used to catch, carry about, and tease spiders with impunity. I was never bitten, but my friend was once by a ‘black spider ’—you know how vaguely the term is used. I can only say that it was almost cer- tainly not an Orbweaver, but was probably either a Tubeweaver or Wan- derer. The spider, as well as I can remember, was about two inches long when fully extended. The bite simply caused a little inflammation, and ean be best compared to a severe mosquito bite.” It is probable that this expresses the ordinary effect of a wound in- flicted by the indigenous species of this geographical province; while that Per Con- tra. 70 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK, of Professor Bertkau exemplifies the worst that may be apprehended in cases of bites by our largest species. Nevertheless, it is not denied that under certain constitutional conditions of the bitten person, the stroke of a spider’s fangs may produce far more serious results, or, in extremely rare cases, even death, a consequence, however, which might issue under like conditions from the sting or puncture of acculeate or irritating insects. VIII. The following facts in the courtship of Lycosa tigrina are recorded by Mrs. Treat.1 It should haye been inserted among mating habits in Vol. II. , Chapter II., but was inadvertently omitted. The males Tigrina’s of this species are different in appearance from the females, being mene a yellowish color with dashes of dark brown; the body is some- what smaller, though the legs are longer. In August the males are abundant. They were often seen bounding over grass and weeds, making long strides, fairly flying before the passer by. At such times it is extremely difficult to capture them. One of these vagrant males was observed to approach the burrow of a female, who had stretched above the vestibule of her den a projecting cover, something like a hood or the top of a baby coach. When the female was within the burrow, the male stood at the door sometimes hours together. Nothing would induce him to venture within, and he was wonderfully ob- livious of the observer’s presence. An effort was made to push him into the den, but he would back out and find refuge in one’s hand rather than be driven into the burrow. At last the female slowly advanced to meet him, and he slowly retreated from the mouth of the den, moving back- ward while she moved forward, just reaching him with the tips of her fore legs, as if caressing him. She followed him in this way a foot or more, then left him and returned quickly to her den, he in the meanwhile following her to the door where he kept his post until she came forth, when the same performance was repeated, At the next visit the male was found on the back of the female with their heads within the burrow, and their long hind legs sticking out. This is the position assumed by the spider when he fertilizes the eggs, as may be seen by consulting Vol. II., Chapter II., Fig. 50. The two remained perfectly still until they were picked up by the observer and dropped into a wide mouthed glass bottle. This action displaced the male, who crouched in a helpless sort of way as if paralyzed with fear, not aa trying to make his escape at all, For a few moments the female paid no attention to him, but made vigorous efforts to escape. Soon, however, she observed her partner, pounced upon him, seized him on the underside of the head, literally by the throat. He made but feeble 1 Am€rican Naturalist, August, 1879. BIOLOGICAL MISCELLANY. 71 efforts to resist, in fact acted as if he rather enjoyed being eaten. The observer shook the bottle, but the female would not let go her hold. In a little while she had doubled up her partner into a ball, and with great relish proceeded to suck the juices of her slaughtered mate. The mouth of the bottle was now uncovered, whereupon the female disappeared into her burrow taking with her the remains of her lover. In a day or two after this another male was at her door, behaving in a manner similar to that above described. His movements were not interfered with, and his fate was unknown. IX. It has been a question with araneologists to what extent spiders mend their nets. I would say that as a rule very little mending is done, except to repair the damage wrought by the agitation of entrapped in- sects: ‘The habit of Orbweavers is to produce a web in the early evening to serve for the ensnaring of prey during the night. If this happens to be well worn out by the abundance of victims entrapped, instead of repairing the snare the ragged remnants will be cut away, and upon the foundation lines a new web will be woven in the early morning for the capture of day flying insects. In brief, the Orbweaver adapts her spinningwork to the conditions of insect life, having in some rude way reached the generalization that there are nocturnal insects and diurnal insects. It has been a question in which I have been interested, whether certain spiders did not adapt themselves to the one class, and others again to the . other ; so that we might speak of night preying araneads as we Noctur- do of night flying insects; but my observations on this point Mending Snares. cease have not been satisfactory. I have an impression that some Spiders. Spiders prefer the night to the day, as, for example, Epeira strix, who almost persistently abides within her den during the day and goes out at night to engage in the capture of insects. Indeed, this is the habit of many spiders. All those that live in leafy domiciles or silken tents hold quite persistently to these in the daytime, and forsake them in the evening, and take their station upon the centre of the orb. To this rule, howeyer, such spiders as Epeira labyrinthea and E. globosa are excep- tions. These are rarely found upon their web, but both day and night remain within their dens and capture their prey almost exclusively by means of the vibratory communications sent along the trapline, as I have heretofore fully explained.t. On the other hand, large numbers of spiders, especially those of the genera Argiope, Acrosoma, Argyrcepeira, and Abbotia, keep their positions upon their orbicular web both day and night, and seem to have no regard, one way or another, for diurnal changes. 1See Vol. I., page 137. 72 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. As a rule, the last named genera will remain upon their webs until they are worn out, and repair them whenever the exigency requires, making the changes ordinarily either in the morning or in the evening, and not attempting to mend the broken lines, except as above stated, in a casual way, to prevent the collapsing of the snare after the disruptions caused by violent insect struggles. They will hold on to the snare and let it do what duty it may until toward the close of the day, when they proceed to cut away the fragments and build anew. It will thus be seen that the act of mending a web in the case of Orbweavers is not common, but confined to the damages done by struggling victims Time for Repairs. Fia. 50. A Shamrock spider mending a wind wrecked web. and to the slight impairments due to incidental casualties, such as the dropping of leaves, twigs, or the effects of the wind. An interesting illustration of the behavior of the spiders under the last named condition was seen during a gale of wind at Niantic, Connec- ' ticut. An adult female Shamrock spider, Epeira trifolium, had A Wind stretched her large vertical orb from a clump of young oak bushes — on the one hand to a cluster of tall golden rods on the other, the intervening space over which her foundation line was stretched being six or seven feet. The lower parts of the snare were stayed to herbage on the ground. A strong gale from the sea was blowing, and whipped the tops of the golden rod back and forth so violently that the main foundation line was snapped and the upper part of the web collapsed, BIOLOGICAL MISCELLANY. 73 as shown in Fig. 50. It, however, hung partially by the radial supports attached to either end of the foundation line. I was fortunately on the _ spot when the accident occurred, and saw Trifolium issue in the most ex- cited manner from her leafy den among the oak bushes and rush across her ruptured foundation line. From one of her hind feet she held out a stout thread, which evidently had been instantaneously extruded. In some __ way, which was accomplished too rapidly for my eyes to take in Mending the details thereof, she flung her body across the gap, and reached aFounda-_ . : ; tion Line. with her fore feet the opposite end of the sundered foundation line, to which she clung, while with the aforementioned thread and with other spinningwork flung rapidly from her spinnerets she spliced the break and thus restored the foundation line. During all this time she was swaying back and forth upon the thread, like a sailor upon a yard arm reefing sails in a heavy gale, The whole. process struck me as exceedingly ingenious, and it was accomplished with such rapidity, without the slightest hesitation as to what ought to be done and the method of doing it, that I concluded that this experience was not a new one, but that Trifolium was quite well used to and thoroughly prepared for such emergencies. Her next step was to gather up the radial supports attached to the foundation line, and thus make good her orb for its intended uses, I could not stay to see the details of this action, but have no doubt that the web was entirely repaired and, after the subsidence of the wind, was as good as ever. It may be well, however, to say that the foundation line! is regarded as the most important part of a spider’s real estate. Given a foundation line there is no trouble, ordinarily, in swinging thereto a snare; but often spiders are sorely put to it to secure this, for which they are usually dependent upon the condition of the wind. It may, therefore, be that the rupture of the . foundation line, in the case above described, was regarded as a capital accident, which called for special energy and prompt action. It is proba- ble that an ordinary rupture in any portion of the snare itself would have been regarded with indifference, and that Trifolium would have remained snugly ensconced within her domicile until the gale had overblown, and perhaps would have taken no notice of it at all. Of course, in considering this matter of repairing snares, the observer will distinguish between the comparatively ephemeral web of the Orb- weaver and the more permanent snare of the Tubeweaver. Such . Patching spiders as Agalena nevia and Tegenaria medicinalis? build almost permanent abodes for their occupants. The tubular portion of the snare is their home, and the snare is rarely rebuilt, never indeed, I believe, unless it is completely destroyed. That these spiders do mend their webs I know, having observed the same. As they grow they weavers. 1See Vol. L, page 66. 2See Vol. L, page 239, Fig. 221. 74 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. will enlarge the margins of the sheeted parts thereof, and will also enlarge the tubular tent. The supporting lines above are also continually strength- ened. These spiders‘may be seen in these acts from time to time by one , who cares to watch their habits. We thus reach the conclusion that those web making spiders that dwell in permanent homes, to which snares are attached, are in the habit of frequently repairing the same; while those which make more ephemeral snares, as the Orbweavers, permit them to be quite worn out as a rule, whereupon they proceed to build new webs. There are, however, exceptions to the above, and occasionally Orbweavers will be found patching their webs. The reasons for this difference, of course, are found in the different characters of the webs themselves, as has heretofore been fully explained in Vol. I. of this work, and need not be here further entered upon. X. Mr. Walter Titus, a youth engaged upon a ranch in the neighborhood of Los Angeles, made a number of intelligent observations upon Trapdoor spider nests, which are furnished me through the kindness of Intelli- Miss Estelle Thompson. This lady is decidedly of the opinion priest that the nests of the California Trapdoor spider are quite com- monly placed in such positions as to allow of good drainage, that is to say, so that the nests are protected from excessive rains. In attempting to lift the lid it was invariably found to be held down, as though by suction from underneath. In one case a spider which was holding down a trapdoor did not let go until the lid was lifted, when she slid into the tube as though going down a well. A full grown spider can force up the door of its house, even when there are three ounces of lead on the top thereof. The manner of entrance to and exit from the burrow is well described by Mr. Titus. When the spider wants to leave home it lifts the lid by pushing from beneath; and when, on the contrary, it wants to reénter its nest it lifts the lid with its mandible, fastening its hooked fangs thereinto, then places its two front legs down into the hole, as though to stay up the hinged trap, and thereupon darts within. It is evident that before retreating she reverses her position, for it is stated that she backs down the nest, and the lid closes by its own weight. The first door that Cteniza makes after she is old enough to set up housekeeping is. composed almost wholly of silk. The next one will not contain so great a proportion of silk, and succeeding ones each a less Entering the Nest. 1T haye given on page 29 an abstract of some observations on the California Trapdoor spider made by Miss Estelle Thompson. Having written for more accurate and fuller details, the following facts came too late to be used in connection with the above, but in time to add to this chapter of Miscellany. re? > BIOLOGICAL MISCELLANY. 75 proportion, until she has made her fifth lid. In this the inside alone is lined, and all the rest is made of clay and a sort of glue or mucilaginous material, which the spider secretes from its mouth parts, and which will dissolve in water. \ Miss Thompson had frequently found burrows with doors that were bare and others covered with lichens, according to the condition of the bank on which they were located. She had never in a single instance found a nest on a lichened hillock that did not con- tain lichens upon the lid. She had cut the upper portion of many from the ground in order to preserve them, and after the door was thoroughly dried the lichens usually fell off. She had not seen the spiders in the act of fastening on the plants, but had no doubt that in some way this was accomplished, or at least permitted. Mr. Titus avers that Cteniza attaches moss, sticks, and fine pebbles to her door at times, and her object in so doing he believes to be to hide it from the “Tarantula hawk.” This insect attacks Trap- ica door spiders within their nests if it can find them, and it is a Hawk, Most formidable adversary, for it grows to be about two inches long. Mr. Titus had the impression, which is the popular one, that the Tarantula hawk feeds upon the Trapdoor spider; but by reference to Vol. II. of this work it will be seen that the object is simply to pro- cure food to place within: a cell wherein the wasp bestows the egg of her future offspring. The insect referred to by Mr. Titus is no doubt the so called “Tarantula killer” of the southwestern States, the beautiful Pepsis formosa Say, which I have figured,’ and whose habits in connection with the destruction of the large hairy Tarantula I have fully described. This observation proves most interesting, and confirms in so far what I have said of the reactionary effect of hostile agents and environment upon the architectural habits of spiders. I have traced? the well Enemies known habit of the Tiger spider to cover its burrow with a se rey ¢. Mossy vestibule to which is attached a rude sort of door, to the ture. purpose to protect itself from the attacks of an invading wasp, Elis 4-notata. I had no hesitation® in using the knowledge thus furnished by the habits of Tigrina as a key to interpret the motive power of Trapdoor spiders in their remarkable industry. I had no facts in my possession, and could only reason from analogy, but offered some conjec- tures* as to the character of the enemies whose assaults are thus met by this rare counteracting ingenuity.“ I also ventured to predict, from the various facts alluded to, that the “enemies they most dread may be rea- sonably looked for among diurnal creatures, and not among those of nocturnal habits.” The observation of Mr. Titus, which is unfortunately Mimicry of Site. 1 Vol. IL., Plate V., Fig. 2; see also full description, pages 384, 385. ? See Vol. IL, pages 404, sq. 8 Td., 409. , 41d. 414. 76 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. without details, confirms all that I had there suggested, and shows that the enemy which the Trapdoor spider is most concerned to evade belongs to the same remarkable family, if it be not identical with Pepsis formosa. ’ Mr. Titus adds that the moss and lichens placed by the Trapdoor spider on the outside of its door will keep green through the wet season, and dies when the dry time of the year comes. He once saw a nest made in a bank of beautiful green moss, the door of which was com- pletely covered by the plant. The nest was discovered by the circumstances that the moss upon the lid was not quite so large as the surrounding moss, and it was only by this that the nest could have been detected. The fact showed that the moss,had grown since the preparation of the lid, and this of course could only have been by the active or permissive agency of the spider architect. Some observations made by Miss Thompson upon the maternal habits of a family of Trapdoor spiders are interesting. The young spiders have a pinkish white color when first hatched. The hatching occupied a period of about three weeks. A little later the color of the spiderlings is described as a silvery amber touched with pink. They remained in the nest with the mother, and at times perched upon her body and legs, where they looked like shining pink pearls against the glossy black. This is the custom of the young of all Citigrades, and, so far as is known, of Tunnelweayers. Of the cocooning habit of this species Mr. Titus says that the female lays her eggs upon the inside of her nest, about three inches above the bottom thereof. The eggs are fastened to the sides of the bur- row with glossy threads. It is thus seen that the cocooning habit of Cteniza Californica is precisely like that of the Trapdoor spiders of Venezuela, as described by Mr. Eugene Simon. Mimicry. Baby Spiders. Cocoon. 1A copy of his figure showing the position of the cocoon within the nest will be found in Vol. II. of this work, page 140, Fig. 172, the burrow of Psalistops melanophygia. CHAPTER IV. WEATHER PROGNOSTICATIONS—SUNDRY SUPERSTITIONS— COMMERCIAL VALUE OF SPIDER SILK. I. THERE is perhaps no opinion concerning spiders that is more widely disseminated and popularly believed than that they have the power to prog- nosticate weather changes. As long ago as the days of Pliny the ‘Weather notion was entertained. That author affirmed that prognostica- along tions may be based upon the spider’s behavior. For example, when a river is about to swell the spider will suspend its web higher than usual. In calm weather these creatures do not spin their ordinary webs, but when it is cloudy they do so, and therefore a great number of cobwebs is a sure sign of rainy weather. An interesting and romantic incident, based upon this supposed faculty, is associated with the wars succeeding the French Revolution. Quatremer Disjonyal, a Frenchman by birth, was an adjutant general in Holland who took an active part on the side of the Dutch patriots when they revolted against the Stadtholder. It happened to him to be captured and con- demned to twenty-five years imprisonment at Utrecht. Here for eight years he relieved the tedious confinement by many curious observations upon his cell companions, the spiders. Among other matters he discovered that they were in the highest degree sensitive to approaching changes in the atmosphere, and that their retirement and reappearance, their weaving and general habits were intimately connected with weather changes. He became wonderfully accurate in reading these living barometers, so much so that he could prognosticate the approach of clear weather from ten to fourteen days before it set in. This ability served him a high advantage when the troops of the French republic overran Holland in the winter of 1794. They kept pushing for- ward over the ice with the assurance of ultimate victory, when a Quatre- sudden thaw in early December threatened the destruction of the cans whole army unless it were instantly withdrawn. The French generals were seriously thinking of accepting a sum offered by the Dutch to withdraw their troops, when Disjonval sent them a message - advising against such action. He had hoped that the success of the repub- lican army might lead to his release, and therefore sent a letter to the 1 Pliny, Natural History of Animals, Chapter XI., section xxiv. (77) 78 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK, French general wherein he pledged himself, from the peculiar actions of the spiders, of whose movements he was able to judge with perfect accu- racy, that within fourteen days there would be a severe frost, which would make the French masters of all the rivers, and afford them sufficient time to complete and make sure the conquest which they had commenced before it would be followed by a thaw. The commander of the French | forces, it is stated, believed these prognostications, and pushed on his armies. The cold weather, as Disjonval had predicted, made its appear- ance in twelve days, and with such intensity that the ice upon the rivers and canals was capable of bearing the heaviest artillery. On the 28th of January, 1795, the French army entered Utrecht in triumph, and Disjonval, as a reward of his ingenuity, was released from prison.! One might think that, under the circumstances, the French captive would have been safe in predicting a change from a sudden thaw to severe cold in the Netherlands at that season of the year. No great amount of prophetic skill would be required to make a success in like circumstances at least nine times out of ten. Nevertheless, a prediction based upon such commonplace affairs as the ordinary course of the weather would doubtless have produced no impres- sion upon the mind of the commanding general; but when fortified by the strange and mysterious association with the behavior of spiders the prediction must have appealed powerfully to the imagination, and, sup- posing the truth of the story at all, have turned the balance in favor of the plan recommended by Disjonval. Nevertheless, the spiders obtained and have retained credit for the matter. The popular notion that spiders are reliable barometers of weather changes is thus well expressed by the late Mr. Wood: Spiders are all very chary of using their silk, and never trouble themselves to make ie ei webs when a storm is impending. They are, therefore, excellent ea. ° barometers, and if they all take to mending their nets or spin- ning new webs, fine weather is always at hand.? It has hap- pened to me numbers of times to hear predictions of the weather based upon the condition of spider webs, made by American farmers in various parts of the country. From what I have heard I imagine that the notion is widespread, particularly throughout the Middle and part of the New England States. ; I have tried to find whether there exists in Nature any sufficient basis for this opinion, and to that end have made numerous notes of my ob- servations. It is undoubtedly true that spiders are sensitive to weather changes, that is to say, extremely cold weather or long protracted rains will keep them in or drive them to their nests or other retreats under An Ex- planation 1 Quarterly Review for January, 1844, quoted by Cowan. * Rey. J. G. Wood, “ Homes Without. Hands,” page 320. WEATHER PROGNOSTICATIONS, 79 * leaves, branches, rocks, or whatever shelter may present. Here they will remain until the storm is over. I always know, after such a sudden change in the summer or autumn, that it will be useless to go into the fields for the purpose of studying spider webs until after an interval of a day or more, and until the weather has moderated. But I am constrained to say that this prognostication is after the facts instead of before them. Let us proceed to apply the test of scientific observation to the belief. Perhaps I may better enable the reader to decide upon the matter by quoting from my journal records of notes made during several years, which, as will be seen, concern summer showers and ordinary rains of the season. Il. fe “Annisquam, Massachusetts, August 14th, 1888.—Severe rains yesterday. The Zillas have spun this morning and the day is bright, but a strong wind is blowing. . . . August 17th.—Orbwebs were freely Notes of spun this morning, but a shower with thunder came on about Sot alae 11.30, and the rest of the day was overcast and showery. Wrebs: “Philadelphia, September 8th, 1888.—A warm, moist morning, soft showers falling freely, yet in spite of this a number of my colonized Argiopes have spun webs or parts of webs as though confident that the day would be clear. There were heavy rains all day, which the spiders did not appear to mind, hanging upon their webs during the showers, which seemed to be no inconvenience to them, They would stop spinning their snares while the rain fell, but take up the unfinished work during the intervals. . . . September 9th.—Rains this morning. At eight o’clock the sky was overcast, drizzling rains following a shower. The showers are soft like those of late spring. Many spiders are out upon their webs, and have so continued during the day. 3.20 P. M.—Epeira vertebrata spinning an orb; the former one evidently destroyed. : 5.30 P. M—A large Domicile spider is making a new orb. No rain this eyening, but the sky much overcast now and threatening. “September 10th.—All the spiders appear this morning in beautiful new webs. There has been no rain since yesterday afternoon. The sky is overcast this morning. The Government weather predictions for the twenty-four hours between 8 P. M. September 9th and 8 P. M. September 10th indicate cloudy weather, with rains and cooler temperature. Some of the spiders have moved their positions. The day kept clear though over- cast, and a few drops of rain. “September 11th.—This morning I found no activity among the spiders in the way of web making, but most of them were upon orbs which appeared to be new, and probably were made during the early morning. The Argiopes and Vertebratas were out in special force. Rain began about 10.30 A. M. and continued an almost steady downpour until eight or nine 80 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. o'clock at night. The Argiopes hung to their webs and took it without * flinching. So also did one of the Vertebratas. “September 18th.—Cloudy. Spiders with full webs. The day clears up. - No rains. . . . September 19th.—Spiders seen with full orbs every- where. Evidently they were at work last night. At nine o’clock morning the weather cloudy. . . . September 20th—Argiopes at work while raining. One spinning after a heavy shower, the drops of rain hanging like beads upon her legs. She is finishing the spirals, part of which had been made earlier in the morning. All the spiders are out on their webs. The weather showery, close, warm. There was a heavy rain at night and yesterday. * “July 11th, 1889.—Yesterday evening the Orbweavers on my vines were busy spinning webs, two young Epeira trivittata being especially observed ; 7 the heavens were clouded at the time and rain threatening. The day had been overcast and was slightly showery. A shower fell in the early part of the night, and between three and four o’clock one of the heaviest rains that I ever have known in this climate. The whole morning has been showery up to nine o’clock. “ September 11th, 1889.—This morning a number of Argiopes were seen spinning their webs; others had formed large perfect snares upon the vines. Several Epeira trifolium have also made snares; also Epeira labyrinthea. Last night and yesterday a very heavy gale blew. Some of the Argiopes remained upon their webs during all the storm until the shield, spirals, and almost everything except a few of the main radiating lines were abso- lutely melted away. They do not seem to care for the rain. Other spiders are hid in their nests, or covered under leaves and other places of refuge. This action of the Orbweavers would seem to prognosticate a fair day. 9 P. M.—On the contrary, the weather has been rainy during the greater part of the day, rain falling incessantly, wind blowing with more or less violence, a raw, disagreeable autumn day, and the night even worse. Again my spiders have failed to prove themselves true weather seers. “September 12th.—The gale of yesterday and the preceding day con- tinued during the night, with rain. This morning is again windy and rainy. A little cessation of the storm at nine o’clock permitted to visit the vines. A number of Argiope cophinaria had made perfect snares, Insularis, Trifolium, Labyrinthea, and Arabesca all were out upon com- pleted snares, or had begun webs and proceeded as far as the spiral scaf- folding. There is not the same activity nor the same number of webs that would have appeared had the day been bright, but undoubtedly many of the spiders have disregarded the weather. Two Argiope cophinaria have cocooned during the night or morning in the midst of the storm. Eleven o’clock A. M.—The rain still continues, a heavy fall. . . . 2P.M.— Wind and rain still continue. . . . 6 P. M—Rain and wind continue. 12 midnight—The storm raging with unabated violence. WEATHER PROGNOSTICATIONS. 81 “September 13th, 7 A. M.—Sky overcast. 9 A. M.—Showery. Argi- opes working in the rain and between the showers. Some are hanging in the centre of their webs by a few lines with their webs melted around them. They begin to build, and finish beautiful webs. Other spiders are also at work. 6 P. M.—It has been cloudy and rainy all day. September 14th.—The severest storm known for many years has been raging all along the sea coast. The spiders are badly out in their predictions. ‘ September 17th, 1889—A beautiful display of webs on the vines in the manse yard, Argiope cophinaria especially, but other species also have made snares, which I have rarely seen equaled for beauty. 1 P. M.—One of the heaviest rains of the season has fallen this morning. Eyening, the whole afternoon, and night has been cloudy. Frequent vio- lent rains. . . . September 18th—The papers are full of particulars of the violent local rain storms of yesterday. . . . September 20th.—A cold and clear day. Spiders are out upon their webs, but the Argiopes are mostly engaged in cocooning. “May Ist, 1890—Warm bright day, many spiders out with new webs, Epeira strix and the young of Argyroepeira hortorum and Theridium tep- idariorum. A storm came up about 5 P. M., and rain has fallen at short intervals up to 8 P. M.” It is useless to continue these quotations, as my notes are fairly repre- sented by these given above. Any one who reads them must come to the conclusion that either spiders have no ability to prognosticate the ordinary weather changes of a summer season, or else they are so indifferent to those changes that they spin their webs regard- less of them. My conclusion is that the persons who trust to the presence or absence of spider webs as an infallible prediction of the state of the weather will frequently be disappointed. Conclu- sion. TIT. That spiders have in some way been associated with good or bad luck is a widespread superstition, which dates indeed. from classical times. A f very few of these superstitions may not be quite out of place Spider here. It is an old English and Scotch notion that small spiders, ps ersti- termed “ money spinners,” are held to prognosticate good luck if ons. Be: they are not destroyed, or injured, or brushed off from the person on whom they are first observed. To destroy these money spinners is held “an equivalent to throwing stones at one’s own head.”! One might feel justified in encouraging this fancy both on the grounds of mercifulness to animals, and as covering at least the germinal truth -that spiders do contribute roundly to man’s good fortune by their faithful service. It is a Southampton superstition, which appears to survive to this day, 1 Jamieson’s Scottish Dictionary. 82 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK, that in order to propitiate these money spinners they are to be thrown over the left shoulder.! Old Fuller, who was a native of Northampton, thus quaintly moralizes upon this superstition: “ When a spider is found — upon your clothes, we used to say some money is coming towards us. The moral is this, those who imitate the industry of that contemptible creature may, by God’s blessing, weave themselves into wealth, and procure a plentiful estate.” The superstition prevails that if a spider approaches either by crawling toward or descending from the ceiling upon a person, it forebodes good to such person; and on the contrary, if the spider runs hurriedly away it is an omen of bad luck. If one kill a spider crossing his path he will have bad luck. A spider should not be killed in one’s house, but out of doors. If in the house, it is a saying with English common people, “that you are pulling down your own house.” If a spider drops down from its web, or from a tree directly in front of a person, such person will see a dear friend before night. A variation of the superstition is, that if the spider be white it foretells a friend, and if black an enemy. In the Netherlands, a spider seen in the morning fore- bodes good luck, in the afternoon bad luck.? The same tradition prevails among Germans, for a German, now resident in Hartford, Connecticut, informed me (and I have since heard the same from others) that in the _ country parts of Germany the people are careful not to see a Luck in spider in the morning, under the belief that it will bring bad pat rial luck. If they have reason to suspect the presence of a spider they will most scrupulously look the other way. But in the evening the same parties want to see a spider, because they believe that then seen it will bring them good luck. He gave me the following German rhyme expressive of the above superstition, to which I add a rude metrical translation :— Money Spinners. “Spinne am Morgen Spider in morning ’ Kummer und Sorgen ; Brings trouble and care ; Spinne am Abend But spider at evening Erquickend und labend.” Refreshing and cheer. This notion has found its way into Ireland, for my cook, who came from County Kildare, the east of Ireland, has told me that the tradition prevailed in her section that if a wee spider would come upon the head it was a sign that the person would get a new bonnet. If it fell upon the dress or coat a new dress or coat would result. She further said that in a little reading book, in use in one of the goy- ernment schools, there was a rhyme like the following :— Tradi- tions. “Tf you want to live and thrive, Let the spider run alive.” 1 Notes and Queries, Vol. II., 165. 2 Thorpe’s North, Antiq., III., page 329. SUPERSTITIONS REGARDING SPIDERS, 83 Another notion connected with spiders is that certain kinds of wood prevent their settling and spinning cobwebs. There is a common saying at Winchester, England, that no spider will hang its web on a roof of Trish oak, and the cicerone who shows the Cathedral Church at St. Davids points out to the visitor that the choir is roofed with Irish oak, which does not harbor spiders, though cobwebs are plentifully seen in other parts of the cathedral.? The same faculty of repelling spiders is attributed also to chestnut and cedar woods,” and the old roof at Turner’s Court, Gloucestershire, four miles from Bath, which is of chestnut, is said to be perfectly free from cobwebs.* Hence, it is said, the cloisters of New College and of Christ Church are roofed with chestnut.* I have at least once met this superstition in Italy, and am free to say that there is no basis for it in fact. I do not remember ever to have visited a public building, particularly a church or chapel, in which I have not been able to trace somewhere the webs of spiders. No doubt, however, some public edifices are inhospitable sites for araneads, simply for the reason that they give little encouragement to the presence of those insects which form a necessary part of spider subsistence. _ Naturally enough, spiders will not resort to and cannot abide in places where they do not procure sufficient food. The spiders which are most frequently found inside our homes and public edifices are certain Lineweavers, mostly of the genus Theridium, and one or two species of Tubeweavers. To these spiders we are indebted for the common cobwebs of our ceilings and corners. The above are only a few of the curious beliefs that have grown up around the spider among all races of men. A number may be found in Cowan’s work heretofore quoted.® IV. The possible commercial value of spider silk as an available textile in industrial art has often been considered. It is not surprising that one , who sees the immense snares and bulky cocoons of tropical Spider araneads or of some Aimerican species of Nephila, Argiope, and Se ini Epeira that inhabit Florida and Southern California, should rary think that such quantities of strong and beautiful spinningwork might be put to practical use. As early a traveler as De Azara® tells of a Paraguay spider whose spherical cocoon, an inch in length, was utilized for spinning by the inhabitants of that land, not only on account of its bulk, but its bright and fast orange color. It is probably a con- ei of Nephila clavipes, the “ silk peak of whose silk, according 1 Notes and Grsties second edition, IV., 298, and Id., 377. 2 Tbid., page 523. ®Tbid., page 421. *Tbid., page 298. e Curious History of Insects. . Voyages dans L’Amer. Merid. Don Felix de Azara, 1809, L., 212, 84 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. to Mr. Jones, the ladies of that island make use for sewing purposes. Mr. Jones succeeded in reeling from the spider a few yards of yellow silk. From time to time, and from various quarters, one gets accounts more or less definite and trustworthy that various rude tribes, and more civil- ized nations, indeed, have availed themselves of spider web fabric for dress. Such is probably the story that found place years ago in an American literary magazine? of the Emperor Aurengzebe of Hindostan, who reproved his daughter for the indelicacy of her costume, although she wore as many as seven thicknesses of spider cloth! I remember reading some- where an account, though the details have passed from memory, of a royal garment woven of spider silk for her Majesty the Empress Victoria by some of the loving subjects of her world wide empire. That the silk of spiders can be reeled from their spinnerets in consid- erable quantities I long ago proved by experiment. That little spools of silk sufficient for show purposes can be gathered by winding off Sources the thick foundation lines from the snares of indigenous Orb- of Spider r Silk. weavers, I also know; and further, that many spider cocoons can be collected, from which, by ordinary treatment, small quantities of silk thread may be prepared which are available for knitting petty objects. But that aranead spinningwork can be obtained in temperate regions, at least, by any practical process, in sufficient amount to justify business investments, I do not think at all likely for many ages yet to come. Until present industrial conditions shall be so far changed, and the present sources of raw silk so greatly modified as to warrant prolonged and costly experiments, and subsequently large outlays, men will adhere to the silk moth. For mere curios spider silk is available; for profit- able commerce it is not practicable. However, the efforts to utilize this material in the domestic arts are entitled to some recognition in these pages. As early as A. D. 1709 M. Bon, president of the Court of Accounts of Montpelier, communicated to the Royal Academy of that city a discovery which he had made of a new kind. of silk obtained from the egg ~ Bon’s bags of several species of spiders, probably Orbweavers.’ His Aiteuiste method was as follows: Having collected a large number of cocoons he beat out the dust, then washed them carefully in water, and allowed them to boil for three hours in a pot containing water, soap, saltpetre, and a little gum arabic. The cocoons were then washed, dried, and darded with extremely fine combs. The result was a gray thread much finer than that of the silk worm, and capable of receiving all the 1A Naturalist in Bermuda, London, 1859, John Matthew Jones, page 126. * Atlantic Monthly, June, 1858, page 92. ® Hist. and Mem. de l’Acad. Roy. des Sciences, 1710. Dissertation by M. Bon, Sur Vutilite de la Soye des Arraignées, Latin and French, 1748. S COMMERCIAL VALUE OF SPIDER SILK, 85 different dyes. From this product, in the natural color, M. Bon obtained two or three pairs of stockings and gloves of an elegant gray color, which were presented as samples to the Academy. The pamphlet in which these novel results were made known attracted much attention. In 1710 the Academy of Sciences of Paris deemed the question suffi- ciently important to investigate thoroughly, and accordingly commissioned the eminent entomologist Reaumur to prepare a report upon the Reau- invention of M. Bon. Reaumur took up and prosecuted the in- Sie 9 quiry with much intelligence and zeal, and came to the conclusion that the culture of spider silk could not be made a profitable industry in Europe, although he intimated that exotic species might repay further attempts. The difficulties which proved most formidable lay both in the maintenance of the animals and the nature of the silk product. He computed that more than half a million spiders (663,522) would be required to produce a pound of silk, and to procure natural insect food for this vast multitude appeared impossible. This obstacle, however, was partly overcome by the discovery that spiders would subsist upon chopped earth- worms, and upon the soft ends or roots of feathers. Then the solitary habit and indiscriminate voracity of the araneans presented serious difficulty. They could not be trusted together, or near one another, for unless separated by artificial barriers they waged ceaseless warfare, and great numbers were slain and eaten. This cannibalistic pro- pensity immensely increased the difficulty of breeding and maintaining a spider plant. The supply of silk obtained from cocoons, moreover, is necessarily limited by the fact that they are not true cocoons, as spun by the larve of both sexes of insects, but egg bags woven by females alone. Further, M. Reaumur decided that spider silk is greatly inferior in strength and substance, the silk worm producing a thread ninety times as strong proportionately. He also adjudged the advantage to be with the insect silk in lustre. In both these points the spider product seemed un- available for weaving cloth. A half century after Bon’s attempt, A. D. 1762, the Abbe Raymond de Termeyer, a Spaniard, took up the matter, and for more than thirty years (1762-1796) pressed his investigations and experiments with Abbe admirable ingenuity and persistence, not only in Europe, but in Ter- ,. South America with the large fauna of that continent. He in- Bxoeri. vented a method of confining the spider while he reeled off the ments, ©Xtruded silk; but his experiments brought the establishment of a profitable industry in spider silk no nearer solution than M. Bon had done. The whole amount of thread obtained in all his ex- periments did not exceed fifteen pounds. Perhaps had he not been called away from America, his most promising field, by what he terms “an unexpected command and an irresistible power,” we might have chronicled 86 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. a more favorable issue.1 We are inclined to sigh with the disappointed enthusiast: “ What a pity, and what a loss!” Termeyer’s line of inquiry differed from Bon’s, in that he took his silk principally from the living subject, while Bon wrought from cocoons. Termeyer’s attempt to reel silk was suggested by observing the manner in which the spider extruded its spinningwork when swathing a fly. His contrivance consisted of three parts: first, a body rest (Fig. 51), consisting of a piece of cork slightly hollowed in the centre,? and supported upon a pedestal; second, a foil consisting of a bit of tinned iron (Fig. 51, b), about an inch wide, having a curved notch in the bottom correspond- ing with the cavity in the cork, on either side of which were soldered two iron pins or wires (c, c) which were introduced into the cork. The spider was placed upon the body rest, as shown at Fig. 53, so that the foil falling between the corselet and the abdomen kept the spider in posi- tion, and withheld the legs from interfering with the ; threads. When about to reel the silk the Abbe gave his cap- tive a fly, which was seized with the feet and jaws, and at the same time the spinnerets were opened by unconscious association of ideas, and threads thrown Abbe Termeyer’s apparatus for reeling silk from living spiders. out. SSA iA ‘phone “ fiy. Fic. 51. Body rest and foil. Fic. 52. Reel. Fic. 53. Spider in The end of) this filament attitude for yielding to the reel. was then attached to a small reel four and a half inches in diameter, with cylindrical arms of glass. (Fig. 52.) This was slowly turned and the silk wound off, as with the silk moth’s cocoon. Indeed, Termeyer wound upon the same reel a band of spider’s silk and a similar band of silk worm’s silk, of which he remarks that the compari- son shows evidently how much more brilliant and beautiful the first is than the second, so bright that it appears more like a polished metal or mirror than like silk. In more recent times the whole subject has been gone over by Professor Wilder, now of Cornell University, New York. For several years, in various Fig. 51. Fic, 52. Fig. 53. 1 Raimondo Maria de Termeyer, Ricerche e Sperimenti Sulla Seta de Ragni, Milan. (Astor Library, New York.) We are indebted to Dr. Bert G. Wilder for a translation of Termeyer’s report of his experiments, which he published in Proc. Essex Institute, Salem, _ Mass., 1867. 2 IT have ventured here to insert this cavity, which is lacking in Termeyer’s sketch, as reproduced by Wilder. oe COMMERCIAL VALUE OF SPIDER SILK. 87 scientific and popular publications,! he communicated many interesting ob- servations, and advocated with much enthusiasm the possibility of estab- lishing a new silk industry from the spinningwork of some of Wilder’s our American spider species. He was led into his investigations Experi while servi A 1863) in-th pete while serving as an army surgeon (August, ) in+the war against the Southern rebellion, and with especial view to fur- nish suitable employment for the multitude of negro slayes who had been launched upon liberty by the rude force of war, and without the responsi- bility and occupations demanded for prosperous freedmen. While encamped in South Carolina his attention was arrested by the remarkable spinning qualities of a species of Nephila? which inhabits the Carolina sea islands and Florida. He invented an ingenious apparatus for reeling off silk from the spinnerets, and better adapted to the long cylindrical abdomen of Nephila than that of Abbe Termeyer, whose method he was quite ignorant of until three years later, but which he then studied and gave to the general public. The first specimen from which Pro- fessor Wilder tried to reel silk remained quiet under the process for an hour and a quarter, and until he had ob- tained one hundred and fifty yards of thread ; but its successors were less com- plaisant. He accordingly contrived an apparatus substantially like Termey er’s, Professor Wilder’s apparatus for reeling spider which also served the double purpose silk. of keeping the animal in an immovable "*™* The Dody mst. Mic. 95. ‘The foll cork position, and preventing her from cut- ting the extruding thread with her feet. The contrivance consisted of two large corks, a bent hairpin, two large toilet pins, a bit of card, and a bit of lead. One cork served as a body rest, and the bottom was loaded with the lead, one half its top beveled off at an angle of 45°, and the card (Fig. 54, c) fixed upon the oblique surface so that its upper edge projected an eighth of an inch. Into the horizontal half of the cork was cut a shal- low groove (g), on either side of which were stuck two pins (p, p) about an inch apart. The second cork served as a foil; it was rounded and smoothed at the smaller end, and a hairpin pushed obliquely through the lower corner of Fig. 54. Fie. 55. 1 Proceed. Amer. Assoc. Adynct. Science, 1865; Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Oct. 1865 ; How My New Acquaintances Spin, Atlantic Monthly, August, 1866; Two Hundred Thousand _ Spiders, Harper’s Magazine, March, 1867; The Practical View of Spiders’ Silk, The Galaxy (an extinct magazine), July, 1869. 2See Vol. L, page 146, and figures. 88 AMERICAN «SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. the larger end, so as to form an angle of 45° with the lower side. About a quarter or third of an inch from the cork both sides of the pin were bent outward so as to double the space between them. In use, the foil was so placed that the prongs of the hairpin passed underneath the card, on the beveled face of the basal cork, and the upper cork itself rested upon the heads of the common pins therein. Then the spider was laid upside down into the groove, so that the projecting anterior part of the abdomen brought up against the edge of the card, and the legs were in front of the pins. Next, the foil was pushed gently down, the prongs passing under the card until the narrow part near the cork embraced the spider’s pedicle. The legs, being then set free, clasped the foil, which thus effectually with- held them from the spinnerets. The natural tendency of the spider being to throw up its spinnerets against the top cork and make an attachment disk, a thread was thus obtained from which to begin reeling. Dr. Wilder states that Nephila could retard the flow of silk by pressing the spinnerets against one another, but says that if the reeling is regular she cannot wholly prevent it. He suggests the use of some anesthetic for the silk worm, to permit direct reeling of thread from the mouth tube, but appa- rently did not think of rendering Nephila com- plaisant and tractable by similar treatment. He suggests methods for reeling silk from several spiders at a time, but seems not to have tried the sac ae experiment. He computes that one spider will FiG. 56. Nephila in position for h i % . reeling silk. (After Wilder. | Yield at successive reelings one grain of thread,? and that four hundred and fifty would be re- quired to yield one yard of silk, or fifty-four hundred for an ordinary dress pattern of twelve yards; this is less than half the amount produced by the same number of silk moth larve, a comparison which corresponds substantially with that of Reaumur, although the two men greatly differ in their estimate of the number of spiders required to obtain a fixed amount of silk. The most recent and apparently the most successful attempt to procure spider silk from culture I find described in a paper of M. Gautier on the habits of spiders.2 He there informs us that an Englishman named 1 This requires seven thousand spiders to the pound of avoirdupois of silk, which seems a much smaller estimate than Reaumur’s. But no comparison can be made, since one esti- mates from reeling product, another from cocoons; one from Nephila, another from Epeira ; and indeed one cannot always determine which method is referred to by the various writers. 2T have not the original, and quote from a translation printed in the New York Sun. _ In the summer of 1892 I tried to find some one in London who knew of this gentleman, but failed therein. The story, however, bears the appearance of authenticity. COMMERCIAL VALUE OF SPIDER SILK. 89 Stillbers has made cloth of spider’s silk which has been employed for purposes of surgery. He only uses tropical spiders, from which, thanks to a scientific culture, he has obtained a much greater return than An Eng- was foreseen by Reaumur. ‘The spiders which he uses are large lishman’s : : p : Attempts ®Pecies from America and Africa. They are placed in octagonal cases, where a sufficiency of insects is served to them every day. In the room where the cases are kept a constant temperature of 60° Fahren- heit is maintained, and a liquid composed of chloroform, ether, and fusel oil is allowed slowly to evaporate. That is to say, spiders spin best when they are under the influence of an anesthetic, as Professor Wilder had suggested, the reason for which has heretofore been alluded to. Mr. Stillbers is said to keep five thousand of these cases in a room forty yards long by twenty wide and five high. The spiders lay eggs of various colors, enclosed as usual with cocoons. These are gathered up and pre- pared by the same mechanical and chemical operations as the cocoons of the Bombyx moth. One cocoon yields one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty yards of thread by a process which is kept absolutely secret. The stuff obtained has a texture resembling ordinary silk, but thick, stiff, and a dirty color. It is all the more necessary to bleach it, because the color is by no means uniform. It is bleached by treatment with oxygenized water. Then it is tanned and softened, when it assumes a pretty yellow tint, and becomes brilliant and smooth. To make a thread say a mile in length requires between forty and fifty cocoons. This is a great advance on Reaumur’s calculations, but still falls far short of a practical industrial success. The stuff obtained must be sold at a very high price in order to obtain the merest compensation for all this trouble and expense. Thus, the last attempt at economizing the silk product of spiders returns to the method of Bon, to utilize the cocoon, and abandons the reeling process of Termeyer and Wilder. CHAPTER V. MOULTING HABITS OF SPIDERS. I. Youna spiders usually make the first moult within the cradle where the eggs have been laid. The young of Lycosa and Trochosa remain in the cocoon until the second moult, after which they emerge and clamber upon the mother’s back, where the third and fourth moults occur before the little fellows begin independent house- keeping in miniature burrows of their own. Wagner asserts! that the mother softens and partly tears the cocoon at its selvage, thus aiding the exit, and that without such help the little ones fail to escape, and die; a statement which I feel sure must be modified. Young Attoids, having undergone the moult, shift their positions to the opposite end of the cocoon, and then moult a second and even third time before egress; as is shown by the fact that one finds within the same cocoon three separate heaps of skins cast at different ages. The subject of cannibalism within the cocoon has already been consid- ered,? with the general conclusion that it is rare among spiderlings, but Gunes sometimes occurs. The Trochosas observed by Wagner would balism, ®PPeat to be among the exceptions ; for not only does the mother in captivity devour her broodlings, but the latter feed upon one another, a fact which is closely related to differences developed at the moulting period. At the end of two or three months a considerable differ- ence in size appears among the young of the same brood ; some are more vigorous and agile, others feeble, and those weaklings commonly fall a prey to their stronger fellows. The cause of this inequality is traced to the fact that the eggs do not all hatch at one time, and that a whole day or more may intervene “between the hatching of one division and another. In general, one remarks in a cocoon, at the second moulting period, one group whose individuals lack two or three days of the time, others on the eve thereof, and still others in the act of moulting. This circumstance alone will explain why, after two moults, the stronger spiderlings are able to overcome and eat the feebler ones. It would thus seem that only the more vigorous enter upon independent life, while the feebler or those which come more tardily from the egg contribute to the perpetuation of the species by yielding Moulting of Young. 1 La Mue, page 344. 2 Vol. II., page 209. (90) MOULTING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 91 themselves to nourish the stronger. To this end also serve the infertile or undeveloped eggs, of which there are usually more or less in most cocoons. II. We may pursue in detail the habits of a few species during their first moult. A brood of Epeiras that much interested me appeared upon the honeysuckle vines in my manse yard on the morning of May 19th. They were then assembled beneath a large leaf which formed the roof of a little room of clustered foliage. (See Fig. 57, central group.) The assemblage was in a hemispherical mass an inch and a half in diameter and three-fourths inch to an inch thick. The entire outward opening of the cavity in which the spiderlings were gathered was filled with a rather closely spun tissue of silk lines, which extended downward for several inches, attached intermediately at several points to other leaves and forming a hollow cone of spinningwork. In the evening, May 19th, the assemblage was broken up into several distinct groups that hung like bunches of tiny grapes at various points of the cavity. May 20th was a showery day, and at one time there was as severe a downpour of rain as falls in this climate. I feared the effect of such a torrent upon the baby spiders, but found that they stood the shower with no apparent inconvenience. Fortunately, there was but little wind, or the lashing of the vines might have been more disastrous than the rain, which, however, had the efféct of causing the spiderlings to break up their sepa- rate groups and reassemble again into one ball. A few of the more adven- turous spirits had separated themselves from the mass and were struggling with Iminute particles of moisture that beaded the defensive spinningwork, and appeared to be engaged in drinking. Indeed, the whole brood, con- sisting of several hundred individuals, seemed rather to enjoy than dislike the rain. No doubt at this stage water is necessary, or at least helpful, for their nourishment. May 21st was a cold day for the season, and the spiderlings hung without any change in the assemblage above described. Towards evening, however, a few were engaged in shedding their skins, having detached themselves from the main mass for this purpose, and suspended themselves by lines that threaded the entire width of their dwelling. May 22d, large numbers of the brood were engaged in moulting. By the use of an ordinary pocket lens the little fellows were seen pulling off their tiny coats, which they did in a few minutes without diffi- culty, leaving the moults suspended upon the lines. They them- selves came out looking bright and fresh, the abdomen a clear yellow, the fore part of the body transparent white. By noon the leafy domicile was filled with the grayish white skins which had been shed, giving the whole affair the appearance of the manse yard when the laundry Young Epeiras. Mode of Moulting. 92 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. has yielded its stock of white goods upon washing day. Observation of this brood shows that there is practically no difference between the habits of young Epeiroid spiders in the United States and those of the baby Argiopes so well described by Mr. Pollock.! By five o’clock in the evening the entire cavity was filled with the little creatures who had gradually separated from the mass in order to cast their skins. Great numbers of grayish white moults occupied the lines directly in front of the opening, to which point many of the spiderlings preferred to come for their moulting. (See Fig. 57.) By standing upon a chair and using a lens I could see the entire process in various individuals. The feet were thrust out, upwards, grasping the supporting lines, the abdo- men doubled up until it was almost at right angles with the cephalothorax, and sustained by threads outgoing from the spinnerets. The skin of the cephalothorax as it cracked open and escaped was so transparent that in the light of the setting sun it glistened like silver. The legs were gradually disengaged by slight regular movements, and issued white and transparent. At various points in the nest this process could be seen in divers stages of completion. , This interesting colony remained in or near the original place of assem- blage for a week, during which time they migrated to nearby parts of the vine, forming thus several separate groups. From these they gradually, but rapidly at the last, spun themselves away and disappeared by aeronautic flight. I saw only one case of canni- balism in the entire brood; one individual was seen feeding on the carcass of a comrade, which it may or may not have slain. Mrs. Mary Treat? has related the moulting manners of a brood of young Turret spiders, Lycosa arenicola. When they were two weeks old these spiderlings strung innumerable lines of web across the mother’s Young back, upon which they disposed of the castoff skins of their moults. Up to this time they had been massed upon her abdo- men, as well as upon her cephalothorax, but then the little creatures, as if by common consent, entirely forsook the abdomen as a resting place and devoted it to the uses of a dressingroom. Sometimes two or three were divesting themselves at the same time. They fastened themselves by a short thread to one of the lines strung across the mother’s back, and this held them firmly while they undressed. The skin cracked all around the cephalothorax and was held only by the front edge; next the abdomen was freed, and then came the struggle to free the legs. The little one worked and kicked vigorously and seemed to have no easy task, but came out of the old dress in about fifteen minutes, although exhausted and almost lifeless. However, it was soon as bright and active as before. ' Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1865, page 460. See also Vol. II., page 228. * Home Studies in Nature. MOULTING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 93 | és Wy \\\ ana HN VS WY cet \ Hl wi |! Fic. 57. Moulting in mass of a brood of young Epeiras. 94 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. It was fully a week before all the brood had moulted, and it was an odd appearance that the mother presented, with the innumerable little ragged castoff dresses hanging all over the lines upon her abdomen, In these broods Mrs. Treat never observed any tendency towards fratricide and intentional cannibalism, although she records that in the absence of other food the mother crushed some of her young and held them so that the little cannibals could suck the juices. The killing of the young may, however, have been simply accidental. A somewhat similar phenomenon may be observed in the moulting of young Dolomede spiders. Within the large nest of woven and thatched leaves made by the mother,! the young spend the early period bi! of their life after issuing from the white cocoon, which is swung medes, i the midst of the little leafy wigwam. Herein they string innumerable lines from wall to wall and from roof to floor, on which they sport and hang in groups, and in due time suspend themselves for the act of disrobing. One who peeps within the nest after this proc- ess, or after it has been abandoned by the brood, will see great numbers of castoff skins hanging to the network of interior lines. The same fact may be observed in the case of the Theridioid young who are in the habit of remaining within the parental snare, or maze of crossed lines, for a period after hatching. They usually take a position in mass at the upper part of the snare, and thereon, when the first moults are made, they hang their rejected skins. In this habit there appears, indeed, to be little difference among broods of young spiders. The place in which they happen to be when Nature compels a moult is the place in which the phenomenon occurs. No doubt, the spiders that remain for the first moults in the nest provided by parental instinct must have a better chance for life, as against the exigencies of weather, than those which, like the Orbweavers, seek their own moulting domicile and shed their skins in any available locality. Therid- ioids. Til. Blackwall expresses the opinion, after having frequently witnessed the moulting of spiders in their natural haunts as well as in captivity, and having examined the cast skins of numerous species belonging to Manner more than sixteen genera, ranging through all the tribes except heey the Territelariz, that the process of moulting is substantially uniform among all kinds of spiders.2 Wagner’s observations have led him to the same conclusion, which I am able also to confirm from observation of the act and study of castoff skins, including therein the Territelaria, whose moulting I have seen in several individuals and found to follow the general rule. 1See Vol. II., page 145, Fig. 177. 2 Researches in Zoology, page 308. ee MOULTING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 95 Orbweavers moult as follows:! Preparatory to casting its skin the spider spins several strong lines in the vicinity of its snare, from which it suspends itself by the feet and a thread held in the spinners. After remaining for a short time in this situation the covering of the ceph- alothorax gives way, laterally, disuniting immediately above the insertion of the falces and legs, so that the head and thorax are the first parts liberated. The line of separation pursues the same direction, passing midway through the pedicle until it extends to the abdomen, which is next disen- gaged. As the thread held by the spinnerets is usually shorter Orbweav-than the legs and undergoes little alteration in length, the ab- Ps iting domen is gradually deflected from its horizontal to a vertical position, nearly at right angles with the cephalothorax. By this change, attended with numerous contortions or undulatory movements of the body, the spider frees the abdomen, which falls back in a wrinkled saclike mass united to the dorsum of the cephalothorax by the upper half of the tegument of the pedicle. The legs are the last and most difficult to detach, but are drawn out downward and usually entire by successive muscular contractions and strains, with brief intervals of rest. Blackwall thinks that the spines with which the legs are provided facilitate the operation; for, as they are di- rected down the limbs and are movable at the will of the animal, when it has partially withdrawn the legs from their sheaths by contracting them, it can prevent them from reéntering by slightly erecting the spines and thus bringing their extremities in contact with the inner surface of the integument. As the spines also and simultaneously with the legs undergo moulting, it may be doubted if their service in- this respect is very great. When the spider has completely disengaged itself from the sheath it remains for a short period relaxed and exhausted, suspended solely by a thread from the spinnerets. The entire process, as above de- scribed, may be completed in about twenty minutes under normal conditions, but varies in length of time according to circumstan- ces. After a short rest the spider adjusts its position, making itself more secure upon the suspensory lines by seizing them with the feet; stretches its legs, bends and unbends them, passes them through the mouth, and hangs in repose until its strength is sufficiently restored and its limbs have acquired the requisite firmness, when it ascends its filaments and seeks its nest or retreat, or takes position upon its snare.” fter Moult. 1 This detailed description is that of an Epeiroid, and is made from my own obserya- tions combined with those of Blackwall, Wagner, and others. ? Blackwall, Researches in Zoology, pages 306, 307; British Spiders, Introduction, page 7 ; Id., Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., XV., 1845, page 230; Id. Trans. Linn. Soc., XVI., pages 482-484; Wagner, La Mue des Araignées, page 284. 96 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. An example or two of moulting as seen in special individuals will serve to define more clearly the above general description. A nearly mature female of Argiope cophinaria was observed (August 19th) in the final stage of moulting. When first seen she was suspended head downward to the central shield of her snare, as represented in Fig. 58. The cephalothorax had already escaped from the shell, and the dorsal part of the moult still clung to the pedicle and stood straight out at right angles to the body. The abdomen was just ready to escape, and, indeed, slipped out of the shell as I ap- proached, and the skin lay in a rum- pled mass at the end of the thread by which the creat- ure was suspended. Argiope Moulting. Fie. 58. Fie. 59. Fie. 60. Fie. 58. Argiope in the last act of moulting. Fics. 59 and 60. Argiope stretching her legs just after moulting. The body was bent upwards in a horseshoe shape, and the legs were partly freed from their moult. A few paroxysms occurred by which the legs were forced further and yet further out of the skin; then, first escaped the first pair, then, in a very brief space thereafter, the two second legs ; immediately the third pair followed, and in brief succession the fourth pair. The spider’s body dropped downward, and she stretched herself as MOULTING HABITS OF SPIDERS, 97 though finding the sort of relief that a human being does when he yawns. (Fig. 59.) The limbs were finally extended to their utmost tension, the respective legs of each pair being precisely opposite to and a little sepa- rated from each other. (Fig. 60.) Shortly thereafter, still maintaining this parallelism of the several pairs, the hind legs were elevated, and then successively the others, until they were all a little more widely separated than repre- \ sented in the figure. After a few minutes repose in this position the legs were doubled up, and the feet placed in a little circle upon the mouth organs, as represented at Fig. 61. The colors of the body were almost the same after as before moulting, only fresher and brighter, with the exception of the palps, which were nearly destitute of color and almost transparent. _ A female of the same species was found (Sep- tember 6th) just after moulting. A rudimentary web had been constructed consisting simply of the characteristic central space, although the silken shield was but slightly marked, and an irregular line of 4, argiope moisten- straggling thick white silk represented the usual ing her feet after moult- zigzag ribbon beneath. This was suspended among ™* surrounding grasses and weeds by sey- eral radii so that it remained quite firm, the whole structure being about three inches long and two wide. The cast skin was attached to the upper part of this moulting frame, the feet being turned upward, the claws holding to the upper lines of the notched zone. The corselet skin swung backwards, showing that the spider had come out in that way by pulling downward. She herself was hanging to the lower portion of the moulting frame in the usual man- Fig. 62. Argiope resting after moulting, sus er, her feet attached to the shield be- ee eeS Rojee wile nliteld. low the moult. The rings upon the legs showed white as they did in the moult. The animal when fully mature does not show these rings, but the tarsus and metatarsus are generally a uniform black color. : IV. A female Linyphia communis moulted as follows: The spider was trussed upon threads stretched across a paper box in which she was con- fined, her body at an angle of about 45°, the abdomen apparently resting 98 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. upon the bottom of the box. The fore legs were extended forward so that the feet came well together, each leg being fastened upon a thread. The cephalothorax and head were bolstered against several cross ton lines. When the observation began the skin of the corselet was Linyphias loose and cast back above the abdomen. The spider was in the act of moulting the face below the eyes and falces. This was done by a succession of regular motions by which the body was pressed backward against the moulting frame, and the skin of the legs, palps, and falces at each swell was pushed a little more forward. The purchase was less as the skin was more and more rejected, and at the metatarsus and tarsus the legs were extricated by pulling them gently, After moulting the legs were folded together under the sternum, and were then passed through the mouth in the manner of spiders when _ cleansing the hairy armature of the legs. The new skin looked pons fresh and bright; the black rings upon the legs retained their Moultine. hue; the flesh colored and brownish parts were whitish; the abdomen was little changed as to color. Shortly after moulting the spider turned over and assumed an upright position upon her moult- ing frame. When touched she kept quite still, decidedly in contrast with the normal habit of the species. The Medicinal spider (Tegenaria medicinalis) suspends itself beneath its web in order to moult. The skin divides at the edges of the cephalo- _. _ thorax, leaving the casts of the sternum and the three first pairs? Uy Tai of legs, together with the mouth parts, on one side; the shield, acess * abdomen, and last pair of legs on the other. In the cast skin the corselet is thrown backward and downward, and is surrounded by the hind pair of legs. It is united to the abdomen, which is repre- sented by an irregular mass of black skin, the softness of that organ preventing it from maintaining the firm outlines of the other parts, which more resemble the shell of true insects. The skins of the first three pairs of legs are thrown forward, nearly or quite touching above the face, as when one throws his arms over his head.!. This represents the position maintained during the act of casting the skin. With Trochosa singoriensis the rejected dorsum of the cephalothorax is held to the abdomen by the skin of the pedicle, which is rent longitudi- nally into two nearly equal parts. The upper part unites the corselet to the abdomen, and the lower part ties the sternum thereto. The cephalothorax parts along the edge above the inser- tion of the legs; the last pair of legs first escape from the old skin, then the third, and the others in order. In unsheathing the legs the spider finds a point of support in the legs themselves; that is, she supports Lycosids. Tarentula. 1 This may not be the rule, but is true of the case described. MOULTING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 99 herself upon the third pair in unsheathing the fourth, upon the second to free the third, and so on. The abdomen does not commence to moult until after the cephalothorax. It is disengaged from the skin, without the aid of the legs, by means of contractions of the abdominal muscles, which produce undulatory move- ments of the skin in the direction from the cephalothorax toward the spinnerets. The cast skin of the abdomen is always much wrinkled, owing to its extreme softness and fineness, that permits it to fold up under pressure. In this saclike abdominal moult one finds the moulted lungs and glands, and fragments of the moult of the intestine and muscles. (Wagner.) The skin of Mygale when cast is sometimes so little broken, as shown by Fig. 63, that by placing the corselet shell upon the sternum and pasting Mivgals it down to the falces, a casual observer might think it a living oie. creature. It will be seen from the cut that the abdomen has been withdrawn from the old tegument forward through the cir- cular rent at the base, where it was united to the pedicle. Even the long spinnerets retain their hab- itual position curled upward along the apex. The ab- dominal skin of this spi- der is so much thicker than that of ordinary araneads, and withal is so heavily cov- ered with strong hairs, that it more readily retains its usual form, instead of shrinking up in a wrinkled mass, as with most species. Sometimes, however, the cast is not so complete as here shown. In this figure the line of rupture along the sides of the cephalothorax is well shown; also the usual mode in which the pedicle is parted, uniting the abdomen on the one hand and the corselet on the other to the sternum. The mandibles have evidently * been withdrawn backward by a motion the reverse of the abdomen, as shown by the unbroken moult fallen forward upon the moult of the mouth parts which adhere to the sternum. Fic. 63. A cast skin of Mygale, showing slight rupture of parts. V. Some spiders issue from the eggs with their feet free; others, as Epeiroids and Theridioids, come out having their feet adhering under the abdomen. They remain thus for six days, more or less, when they cast the first tegument and quit the cocoon.’ The skin thus enclosing the legs is 1 Simon, Histoire Naturelle des Araignées, 100 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. in fact the vitelline membrane, and deliverance therefrom constitutes the first moult. ‘The number of times that spiders change their skin before they be- come adult is not uniformly the same as regards every species, not eyen perhaps the same within the individuals of any one species. . Periodic- or example, Blackwall made some careful observations upon the Hs Bae frequency of moulting in a young female of Zilla x-notata! and ‘Epeira diademata, which I arrange for sake of comparison in the following tabulated form :— ZILA X-NOTATA,. EperrRa DIADEMATA, Days Interval. ' Days Interval. Disengaged from egg. ..... March 30th, April 14th, 1. Moulted in cocoon. ..... . April 8th, 9 April 24th, 10 Quitted cocoon... 2.0.5... May Ist, May 34d, 2 Moule Aon) sey sR ee sak Juné 4th, 54? bp Cats See ee ey ae June 22d, 18 June 21st, 50? 4; Moultea yy sss. va ree July 12th, 20 July 10th, 19 PRON on at cep ee ee ORE August 4th, 23 August 3d, 24 There were five moults in each case; the intervals between disengage- ment from the egg and the first moult were about the same; the Epeira remained much longer in the cocoon than the Zilla, perhaps for some local reason; its next moult, the first after emerging, was not recorded. But there was evidently an irregularity during the interval from moult 1 to moult 3 where the record can again be compared. However, if we take up the comparison from the dates of leaving the cocoons, the moulting intervals of the two species are of nearly equal length. Perhaps this table represents fairly enough the normal periodicity of moulting with Orb- weavers. With Lycosids (Trochosa), according to Wagner, the second skin is rejected in about six days, at a time when the younglings dwell in part within the cocoon and partly on the mother’s back. The third moulting occurs six to seven days thereafter upon the mother’s body. The fourth moult occurs seven to eight days after the third, partly on the mother’s body and partly in the maternal burrow. After this moult the younglings leave the burrow and begin independent 4 life. At this time the spiderlings have attained more than one-tenth their normal size, and have before them a series of moults amounting to ten in all. The time required for full development and for completion of all the moults is from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and ninety-five days, excluding winter months. The periodicity and the safety of moulting are modified by various Lycosids. Trochosa. 1 Epeira calophylla Blackw. * There is probably a break here in the observation, and a loss of several moults. ’ Wagner, Note On the Tarentula, Comtes rendus de la Sect. Zool. de la Soc. Imp. des Se. Nat. de Moscow, 1866. MOULTING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 10] conditions. Blackwall had already noticed that food and temperature exercise a decided influence,! and Wagner has confirmed the fact. Moult- ing is suspended in winter in natural site; but if spiders be housed in : warm rooms the moult may be artificially stimulated, but the Modify- moulting intervals are then longer than usual in natural condi- qos tion. If a young brood of the same age be exposed to different degrees of heat they will shed their skins at intervals corre- sponding thereto, the warmer ones earlier, the colder later. The lack of sufficient nourishment retards the moulting epoch, and tends to make the act more difficult and dangerous, so that many spiders die in or after the act from inanition. Causes affecting the normal health of the organism modify the moult. Blackwall discovered that young spiders infested by the larva of Poly- Phcuniies sphincta carbonaria, an insect belonging to the Ichneumonide Sting. which feeds upon their fluids, never moult.2, Wagner notes the effect of the prick of a Pompilus sting upon two male Trochosas ; one stung July 8th remained sick and languid until August 7th, an unus- ually long period, and then moulted. During the act, probably for lack of vigor, the legs were contorted and deprived of motion. Another male, stung at the same time, passed an interval of a month and ten days before moulting, a great retardation as compared with subjects of his own age who had long before that shed their skins. This spider began moulting August 17th, and on September 2d, when it was moribund, it had only achieved the moult of the abdomen and corselet. The legs were with- drawn from the old skin in the morning and appeared to be normal, but in the evening they were bent up and flattened, doubtless the result of imperfect alimentation during the two months succeeding the sting, and of the imperfection of the interior moult. Neither of these wounded spiders made any preparation for moulting by stretching supporting frames of silk lines. The normal conduct and periodicity of moulting appears thus to depend upon three kinds of agents: first, the interior conditions of the animal’s development; second, the expen- diture of the reserve for the maintenance of internal heat and locomotion ; and, third, external conditions, such as heat and food.® VI. After moulting, all spiders, old as well as young, are in a state of greater or less feebleness, proportionate to the difficulty and length of the act. They hang in a relaxed and helpless condition upon their proper snares, if sedentary, or upon temporary scaffolds woven as supports; one 1 Zoological Researches, page 309. 2 Brit. Assn. Advanct. Sci., 14th meeting, pages 70, 71. * Wagner, La Mue, page 357. 102 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. may even touch them at that time without responsive signs of life. Of course they are then at the mercy of their enemies, to whom, in point of fact, they do fall an easy prey in great numbers, One would naturally expect from what has elsewhere! been written of protective habits, that Nature, intent upon the preservation of the species, would provide some recourse against this peril. Accordingly we find that, upon the approach of the moulting period, many spiders pre- pare for the emergency; some creep away into crevices of rocks, crannies of walls and fallen wood, hollows of trees and stumps, underneath loose bark, stones, and like sheltered positions. Many species overlap and join together the edges of leaves, and moult within the tent thus formed ; some preémpt the cocoons or lodges of other spiders, and some appropriate the nests of sundry insects. The Attoids moult within the silken cells which are the characteristic dwellings of the family and make no other provision therefor. Curiously, they have a fancy for cells other than their own, and for old Protect- rather than new. They freely avail themselves of strange cells, ni Hab- and the ones which appear most to please them are the abandoned nests within which the females have laid their eggs, after the young have quitted them. Hence, one will sometimes find the shed skin of one or even two yagabond males inside such sites. Tubeweavers seek the funneled part of their snare and moult beneath the outspread curtain, as do also the Linyphie. Lycosids moult within their burrows, which they previously close, showing thus the same sense of need that leads them to cover their nests in winter and the cocooning season. Orbweavers do not have the same degree of secretiveness at this period ; at least many of them are found moulting upon their snares, as shown in the various accompanying figures, with no special provision for conceal- ment or protection. Often they do not even get behind their webs or seek the shelter of adjacent foliage. The Lineweavers also moult upon their webs, but then their position underneath and within their maze of crossed lines, as with Theridioids and with Pholeus, would in itself seem to be a good protection, As a general but not invariable rule it may be said that spiders having a fixed abode, as all the sedentary groups of Lycosids that live in burrows, many Attoids, etc., cast their skins on or in their snare or lodge. But those species which have no fixed dwelling seek divers shelters for moulting. All the burrowing spiders observed by Mrs. Treat closed their dwellings just before they moulted, and before making their cocoons. When this work was over they cut the threads and threw the covers back, sometimes entirely severing them. At other times a sort of hinge was left on one 1 Vol. IL, page 407, MOULTING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 103 side and the door fell back, keeping an attachment to the wall.! This is especially the case with Lycosa tigrina. Wagner confirms this observation in the case of the European taren- tula, which closes its burrow with a sort of pent house above the door, and suspending itself to the sides thereof, head downward, passes its moult. In captivity these preparations change in their details, but their aim remains the same, and is always attempted in one way or another.? It seems probable, as suggested by Wagner, that the nature and extent of these precautions depend upon the facility with which the moult is accomplished; the greater the facility the less the precaution. Facility For example, young spiders appear to experience little or no oN gil difficulty in shedding their coats, which they do in a few min- : utes—young Orbweavers in from three to ten minutes, young Trochosas in two minutes. As the spiders advance in age the succeeding moults are passed with increasing difficulty, the last moult being often the hardest to achieve. Now, young spiders make no preparations and take no precautions in. moulting, and drop their skins wherever they ] chance to be, a carelessness which disappears with the approach fons of adult life. Thus Wagner records that the young of Trochosa Spiders. singoriensis make no protective defenses during the early period of life, when they moult easily; but as the act is made more difficult and protracted by advancing age, they cover their burrows when they feel the moulting period coming on. The Thomisoids quite generally shed their skins easily and rapidly, and, accordingly, they do it openly, only spinning a supporting thread over the petals of a flower or the surface of a leaf. Even in the case of some young spiders one may see evidence of the same sensitiveness to danger, for if the young of Attus terrebratus, who are in the habit of moulting en masse within the maternal cocoon, be removed after the second moult and put in a suitable place, every one will spin a little cell within which the third moult is separately made. This quick perception of the change of condition and ready adaptation thereto is justly noted by Wagner, who relates it as a fine example of instinctive wisdom. My tarantula “ Leidy,” distinguished by having reached the greatest age of any spider known to science, finally died in the act of moulting when more than seven years old, Its death is another example of a fact which I had previously observed, that the act of moulting is frequently attended by dangers of one kind or another to spiders. It is common to find -1My Garden Pets, page 82. 2 One needs to distinguish between the word tarantula, which is the popular name for the huge Mygale of our southwestern States, and the genus Tarentula of the Lycosids. The Turret spider (L. arenicola) and my Tarentula (Lycosa) tigrina are closely related in habits and structure to the famous “tarentula” of Italy, and the well known Tarentula (Lycosa) Narbonensis. 104 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. specimens without one or more limbs, also with distorted and abbreviated limbs. I have frequently found males lacking several legs. The theory commonly adopted is that in most of these cases the loss has resulted from conflicts, perhaps among rival lovers in attendance upon the same female. Something of loss may be attributed to this cause, but I am satisfied that in a much larger degree losses and mal- formations are due to the accidents of moulting. One example I may cite, the loss of two limbs experienced by a large tarantula which I had kept under observation. This spider lay upon its back in the araneary during part of the time of moulting, and on its side during the remainder thereof.» The skin was cast by a succession of movements of the body or parts of the body recurring at reg- Limbs lar intervals, reminding one of labor pains among mammals. ae in For some reason two of the legs refused to separate from the oulting. ~~. ? skin, and after a prolonged struggle they were broken off at the coxee, and remained within the moult. (See Fig. 64.) One foot of another leg shared the same fate. This moult oc- curred in the spring ; during the latter part of August of the same year the spider again moulted. The moult was a perfect cast of the animal, the skin, spines, claws, and the most delicate hairs showing, and their cor- responding originals appeared bright and Fic, 64. Cast skin of Mygale, showing FES of legs broken clean upon the spider. F anring moulliha. When the castoff skin was removed the dissevered members were lacking thereon, but on the spider itself new limbs had appeared, perfect in shape but smaller than the corresponding ones on the opposite side of the body. The dissevered foot was also restored. The rudimentary legs had evidently been folded up within the cox, and appeared at once after the moult, rapidly filling out in a manner somewhat analogous to the expansion of wings of insects after emerging.! It is possible that the tarantula “ Leidy ” was too much exhausted by long previous fasting to endure the severe strain upon the organism in the act of moulting, although judging from the disjecta membra of the Moulting Dangers. 1 See Proceedings Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1883, page 196. — = MOULTING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 105 skin recovered from the burrow it had succeeded in casting them all off without any mutilation. The spring of 1887 was a backward one, and I experienced great difficulty in procuring insects for food from Effect of the immediate neighborhood. The annual supply of grasshop- ~ pers and locusts upon which I had relied came very late. Per- haps had the spider been strengthened by a few weeks generous feeding previous to its last moult it might still have been alive. VI. With each moult spiders undergo a change in color and patterns more or less decided. Some species have such neutral colors and are so uni- tes formly marked that the differences are not decided; but some een undergo such decided changes that different species have been established for the same spider upon specimens taken after differ- ent moulting periods. In some species the colors and markings of the youngling, after the first moult or two, fairly represent the markings at - maturity ; in others the difference is so great between the two stages of life that it is quite impossible to identify young individuals, or distinguish the young of several species with accuracy. Among the young of Lycosa and Attus, according to Wagner, these mod- ifications are effected with the female and male so equally and uniformly during the first four or five moults, and with Trochosa during the first six or seven moults, that one is scarcely able to distinguish the sex. With the final moults these distinctions become more and more marked, though not always to the same degree. The differences in relative length of legs and in the shape of the palps also begin to appear; for example, the male Trochosa singoriensis at the seventh moult equals in body size and rela- tive length of the legs those of the female at the sixth moult. The same is true of Attus. Among Orbweavers generally, and in spiders of various tribes observed, the change in color (and in form also) is most decided in the males; that ._ is, the young male carries the typical colors and general shape ae of the adult female; the younglings of both sexes after the initial moults resemble each other perfectly, and tend to resemble the adult female. Thus the young male of Dictyna philoteichous bears a close likeness in color and pattern to the adult female; but after final moult the difference in color is quite marked, as well as in shape of palps and contour of body. ‘Professor Peckham! finds a close resemblance between birds and spi- ders in their moulting changes, and his special studies of the Attide are 1 Occasional Papers, Nat. Hist. Soc., Wisconsin, Vol. I., 1889, page 16, George W. and Elizabeth G, Peckham, 106 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. valuable and interesting. He concludes that when the adult male is more conspicuous than the adult female, the young of both sexes Peck- — closely resemble the latter in form and color. On the contrary, ham’s : : Studies. when the female is more conspicuous the young follow the more Attide, modest colors of the male, especially in the earlier moults. When the adult sexes resemble one another the young of both sexes favor the common type. As examples of the above, Phidippus johnsonii female has the abdomen red and black, with a white base and some white dots; the male is bright vermilion red, with sometimes a white band at the base. The young of both sexes resemble the less showy mother until the last moult, when the males assume their bright livery. In another species, Habrocestum splendens, which the Peckhams illus- trate with a good plate, the young during the first moults more closely resemble the female, which is the less showy sex. The male is a brilliant fellow, who dons his gorgeous livery at the last moult just as he becomes mature, though in some species the nuptial robe is acquired one moult before maturity. Among the Laterigrades the same rule obtains, several species of Thomisids showing greater brilliancy of color among the adult males, while the young males resemble the female until the last moult. In Sparassus smaragdalus! the female has a deep green body and legs of somewhat lighter shade; the male? has green corselet and legs, but the entire dorsum of the abdomen yellow, with a wide herring bone median stripe of red and the folium margined on each side with the same color. The young at the first moult are a dull whity-yellow color and grayish legs, but in subsequent moults are said to resemble the mother, Figs. 65 and 66 will illustrate the difference resulting from the final moult of male spiders generally. The drawings are made from a male Zilla atrica, Fig. 65 being the form shortly before the last moult and Fig. 66 that of the mature male. In some species the difference between ma- Lateri- grades. Fie. 65. Fie. 66. : . “78 mi ture and immature palps is much more striking. Gc. 65. Immature male palp of 4 = Zilla atrica, Fic. 66, The same It is not correct to say that these modifica- Re es tions are effected in the interval of the last moult alone. In point of fact the distinctions begin to appear earlier, but they are commonly so difficult to detect, and the apparent change effected during 1A fine female of this species with her cocoon and young was taken by Rey. W. F. Anderson, of Fordham, N. Y., on the mountains of Switzerland and brought to America safely. It was sent to me alive and lived several weeks. The young were all a dull yellow- ish color with livid legs, but I could not preserve them beyond the first moult. 2 Blackwall, Spiders Gt. B. & I., Vol. IL, pl. v., Fig. 61. MOULTING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 107 the last moult is relatively so much greater, that one reasonably comes to locate the transformation within the last moulting period. In some cases, however, the coloration of the sexes is more strongly differenced during the stages previous to final moult. Thus the color of male Trochosas during the two or three last moults is notably clearer than that of females. With Attus, in the corresponding periods, one may observe the sexual peculiari- ties in color distinctly appearing, and that they deviate more and more intensely with each moult, until the last fixes the distinction. Like the male, the female awaits the final moult for perfect development, at which time the genital cleft is freely opened and the hood and scapus assume those various forms which serve as valuable specific characters. “Leidy,” one of my captive tarantulas, shed its skin several times. The first moult occurred some time in August (1882). I had been absent _ on my usual summer vacation, and returning August 31st saw ou al the animal lying on the soil about the middle of its araneary, Tha? with its feet gathered together, looking dull, gray, and faded out, apparently dead. I shook the globe. No responsive motion fol- lowed, and I left without more careful observation, concluding that the spider was dead. I was not able to visit it again until the fifth day of September following. I threw off the cover of the globe and put my hand in to take out the dead body, which lay apparently in the same position, in order to preserve it in alcohol. At my touch the animal leaped to its feet, and as I hastily withdrew my hand it presented itself quite changed in appearance. The body was a fresh bright color, the cephalothorax a clean whitish gray, the head and fangs dark brown. The abdomen was black, with brown hairs covering it. The legs were black, with yellowish brown hairs and spines. I at once understood that the spider when first seen was in the torpid condition which usually immediately precedes the act of moulting. In the interval between my visits it had cast off its skin, which I found lying in a tolerably complete condition on one side of the glass. Another tarantula, a male, which I received when quite young, came to me a dull reddish brown, but during successive moults at last appeared a bright black brown, almost black, VIII. We may thus summarize the most important moulting phenomena, as above disclosed. 1. The first two moults of spiderlings occur within the : _ cocoon or on the mother’s back; several occur before entrance Biologi- upon independent life, sometimes as many as four. 2. The cal Sum- dividuals of a brood do not all moult at once, and those moult- ing first, having the greater strength, in some species feed upon the younger and weaker individuals; in these cases survival depends upon priority of moult. In other species cannibalism is absent or rare, and 108 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. early moulting gives no such advantage. 3. Young spiders moult rapidly and easily, and with little loss of vitality; therefore precautions against dangers incident to that period are scant or wanting. 4. The method of moulting is substantially the same in all species. 5. The head and thorax moult first; the old skin cleaves horizontally about midway of the latter, the shells escaping backward and upward and downward, the mouth parts adhering to the sternum moult; the pedicle splits longitudinally, holding the above parts severally to the upper and lower front of the abdomen. The abdomen next follows, the shell escaping backward entire; then follow the legs, which are withdrawn from the old sheaths downward by an interrupted series of muscular contractions and strains, usually escaping entire and in succession, beginning with the first pair. 6. The number of moults varies according to species, from seven to ten being the most common limit; these are made at intervals more or less regular, and at corresponding periods of time in individuals of the same species or even genera. 7. The periodicity of moult- ing is modified by amount of food, by temperature, and by causes affecting the spider’s normal health; it is wholly suspended by the pres- ence within the body of a larval parasite and by the prick of a wasp’s sting. 8. A period of relaxation and exhaustion, more extended and severe as age increases, follows the moult. 9. Many species protect themselves against this after-moult weakness by various precautions in accord with their social nesting habits, such as creeping into crannies and leaf-rolled dens, covering over burrows, et cetera. Sedentary spiders usually spin a moulting frame. These precautions are commonly cotemporaneous with the increasing difficulty of moulting. 10. Changes in color and pattern, more or less decided, occur with the successive moults. 11. The young males and females are scarcely distin- guishable just after the first moult, but the difference grows more * distinct with successive moults until the last moult, when the animals are mature and the sexual characters distinctly marked; at this time the male form most widely diverges from that of the typical young. 12. The changes of skin are often attended with loss of limbs or parts thereof, and death sometimes results from inanition; the attendant weakness exposes the subjects to assaults of stronger congeners and alien enemies, so that moulting thus becomes a factor of danger to individual life, and so to the perpetuation of the species. Methods. Periodic- ity. Changes. IX. We pass now from the biological phenomena of the moulting period to consider the physiological and histological processes and changes connected therewith. The most complete study of these has been made by Mr, MOULTING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 109 Waldemar Wagner, the Russian savant, whose skillful and patient researches have heretofore been quoted. I shall draw chiefly upon his work “La Mue des Araignées” for the material which it serves me to pre- Physio- sent here, For full information the student is referred to Mr. Moulti Wagner’s paper. It will sufficiently answer the purpose to give oulting ‘ , Changes. ® general notice of the development of the process, and to illus- trate these by quoting somewhat in detail, in the case of several organs, the genesis of the new skin and the rejection of the old. Ordinarily the matrix of spiders presents a layer of protoplasm with numberless cells, This is colored equally throughout, the cell, as usual, being more, the plasma less, intensely colored. As the moulting time approaches one ceases to observe this equality of coloration; the superior layers next the old cuticle are colored more and more feebly ; and finally, at the moment when the contingent layer ceases to be colored and _ loses its granulation, and when, consequently, we may rightly consider it as trans- formed into a chitinogenous layer, then the future tegument begins slowly to separate from the old. As the new skin is retracted from the old cuticle the interval thus formed is filled with liquid, in small quantity at first, but gradually increased with the enlargement of o¢ A a Bo AO 3 OS i ee pete tanks the - cavity. The new tegument increases rapidly ; within the ceph- alothorax, not being able to have full exten- ese sion, it forms many folds (Fig. 67, fn.t), "9 saast ona surly pags hed destroying thereby the layer of the old tegument under the old (0.t). cuticle, which is drawn from it, and from which it is disengaged little by little. On the abdomen one does not observe these foldings of the new skin, because the old is there so pliable that it does not impede the growth of the new. At the moment when the new hairs are completely formed there remain of the old skin, separated from the new, only the tubes which serve as sheaths for the new hairs; and, on the day of the moult or the day before, these sheaths are destroyed, and the liquid underneath the tegument disappears. The moult of the eyes takes place simultaneously with the other organs; the matrix in process of growth insinuates itself between the vitreous body and the preretinal envelope, the cells of which are in that way forced upward and lose their regular form. The moulting of all the eight eyes does not take place at once, but probably at differ- ent times. With Attus terrebratus, at least, the lateral eyes are the first to end their moult. For a period longer or shorter before the rejection of the old skin, according to the stage of development, spiders lose their sight, and after the moult vision is not restored all at once. — During the moulting of the lungs breathing is difficult, but the time occupied therein is short. Two of the three layers which compose the Byes and Lungs. — 110 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. tracheee are shed, the broken parts of the old tube remaining among the silk threads of the moulting frame, and all glands formed by ectoder- mic invagination also lose their linings. The pharynx, cesophagus, and rectum take part in the moult, as do also the tendons, especially the muscles of the limbs, the matrix growing around the old tendon and forming a new one, while the old one atrophies and is cast away with the tegument. During moulting the number of spherical blood corpuscles, which usu- ally is only three to four per cent. of the total number of corpuscles, increases to ten per cent., almost all the red corpuscles being transformed into spheres. Want of movement during the process seems to be one but not the sole cause of this change in the condition of the blood; and it must be remembered that a development of all the internal parts of the body takes place at the moulting period, so that the casting off of the integuments, etc., is really but a secondary act. In the last stages of development, when the embryonic cuticle is secreted, according to Schimkevitch certain cells of the chitinogenous layer are aug- mented in dimensions, taking a spherical form and dispersing themselves under the chitinogenous layer, which forms above them something like a raised vault above the cuticle. These are the future hairs. The nuclei of these cells are of large size, but they are not very distinctly separated in con- tour from environing cells. Some time thereafter these cells increase in size, but their nuclei deviate proportionately less. These cells are already devel- oped immediately under the cuticle; it is evident that in growing they have pushed the chitinogenous cells against the sides. The contours of the trichogenous cells deviate more apparently, and the adjoining chitinogenous cells, from a contour ordinarily distinct, stretch. out, taking a semilunar form and investing by their sides the trichogenous cells. The hair of spiders is a unicellular formation.* Mr. Wagner describes the origin of a new hair in detail. At a certain epoch in the life of spiders more or less preceding the moult, according Rae to the various species, the inferior layer of the old skin, as we ee °" have already seen, is retracted from the others, and the interval Hairs, thus formed is filled with liquid. The retraction is effected slowly. The sections made during that stage present the appear- ance of Fig. 70. The inferior layer of the cuticle (in.lr.ct.o, Fig. 70) is removed far from the other layers (ct.o), and the intervening space is filled with liquid (lq), which is so formed that it floats the tube which at the time has served to form the primitive hairs. The position in which one sees it in the figure is not the most common, but is quite rare; it is often seen bent up in one fashion or another next the seat of the hair. The Blood. Moulting of Hairs. 1W. Schimkevitch, “Materiaux pour la connaisance du developpment des Avatenbeas: cS Memoirs Acad. Sci., St. Petersburg, 1886, Suppl. ant. LII., No. 5. . MOULTING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 111 While these things take place, one of the inferior trichogenous cells of the matrix (nw.hcl) augments in size and stretches itself in the direction of the hair tube (tu.oh) in the form of a light papilla (nw.hel), which originates the new hair. Some time thereafter this papilla ensheaths itself within the cavity of the old hair tube, perforating the layer of the matrix (mtx) situated above it. Sometimes, near the extremity of the new hair, as is shown in Fig. 68 (tu.oh), one sees also the unsheathed tip of the new hair (nw.hr) standing up freely, and the remainder Jw: Fia. 70. Fie. 68. New hair, nw.hr, shown within its old sheath, tu.oh, the tip exposed, and the base of the moult, mit, pushed off. “Fie. 69. Tip of new hair shown within the old sheath before moulting. Fic. 70. Sec- tion showing the origin of a new hair (after Wagner); in.Ir.cto, inferior layer of old cuticle, ct.o; lq, liquid filling interval; tu.oh, tube or sheath of the old hair; ch.lr, chitinous layer; nw.hcl, new hair cell; mtx, matrix; rt.nw.hr, root of new hair. References uniform in the figures. thereof enclosed within the sheath. At the same time is seen the pubes- cence upon the new hair, and its root (rt.nw.hr, Fig. 68). The relations of the tip of the hair to the old tegument are shown at Fig. 69. At this epoch the liquid (lq, Fig. 70), which filled the space between the old and new skin, disappears; afterward the sheath of the new hair breaks and is seen entirely formed under the old skin. 112 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. X. The poison glands after the first moult are situated with Attus in the mandibles, and do not pass beyond those limits. Further on, as with the Lycosid (Trochosa), the inferior end of the gland is placed rather below the median line of the mandible. (Fig. 71, gl.v.) Afterwards the superior parts of the gland issue beyond the mandible for a third of their length (Fig. 72), and their inferior extremi- ties do not reach the median line of the mandible. Finally, after a series of moults, the gland is no longer found within the mandible, but extends wholly beyond it (Fig. 73), and is withdrawn farther and farther with every moult. At the same time the dimensions of the gland increase as well as the number of muscular fibres; a fact which gives us a measure of the phylogenetic development of any spider thus tested. With the genus Epeira the poison glands are relatively large. They are placed in the anterior part of the cephalothorax at some distance from the mandibles, with which they are joined by quite a long conduit. With the Clu- bionide these glands are of a much smaller size than with Epeira, and only a part thereof is found within the ceph- alothorax, the remainder of the gland being situated within the basal joint of the mandible. With the Mygalide the whole gland is located with- in the basal joint. It will thus be seen that the modi- ,),/ fications in the poison gland : es accomplished by successive cr FG. 72. moults in advancing age ects: are, first, the increase in MOoULTING OF POISON GLAND IN TROCHOSA. 7wA Fic. 71. Venom gland, gl.v, at an early stage, inside the mandible ; size; and, second, the change “"S, ‘tne auct.. Fic. 72 Gland at further stage. Fra. 78. Gland of position. after final moult, withdrawn beyond the mandible. A study of the rejected moult of a spider shows well the thickened points of insertion of the muscles of the abdomen, which in that organ _ are, characteristically, immediately upon the cuticle. Upon the Abdomi- inferior or ventral part of the abdominal moult, according to sige Wagner, there are two median rows of thickenings, consisting of : sixteen pairs, a little removed from one another (Fig. 74, Nos. 1-16); then two rows of lateral thickenings. (Fig. 74, Nos. 17-39.) These rows consist of twenty-three pairs of thickenings disposed first (near to the lungs) irregularly, and then in lines almost straight and parallel to the two medians. In all, there are on the inferior face of the abdomen thirty- nine pairs of thickenings, representing the points of insertion. Besides Poison Gland. MOULTING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 113 these there is a large number of points of immediate insertion of the muscles upon the cuticle without thickening of the chitine at that point. Like conformations are observed upon the dorsal face of the abdomen. These are near the local thickenings of the chitine at the points of inser- tion of the dorso-ventral muscles, and in the interval comprised be- tween the lines of the local thick- enings upon the dorsal face and the lateral line of thickenings. (Fig. 74, Nos. 17 and 39.) An examination of rejected teg- uments shows the existence of two forms of points of insertion, which differ in structure and size. One presents a thickening, more or less considerable, of a sculpture tuber- culous upon the exterior (Fig. 75), and having a row of cells and walls more or less thick upon the inte- rior. (Fig. 76.) Each of these cells serves for a point of immediate in- sertion upon a fasciculus of muscles, so that the number of cells indicates the number of fasciculi. The other : 3 ; 3 ¥ _ ‘ Fie, 74. (After Wagner.) Rejected tegument of spider’s mode of immediate insertion of the abdomen, ventral part, showing points for muscular muscles shows no thickenings of the sschment;o, generic: pore; 136 see chitine; but one observes at these muscles; 17-39, twenty-three pairs of points of inser- points upon the tegument certain 0 £7 two lateral series; pou, gills. linear thickenings, hardly distinct, which indicate the limits of the point of insertion of the muscles and of each of the fibres taking part. One can hardly fail to note that the arrangement of these points of attachment indicates in a general way, and indeed with tolerable accuracy, the outlines of the markings which ZEEESX LK Sey distinguish these animals. For the | od KA most part these are so grouped as ‘ CUS to form a folium or rude figure of ez ~~ a leaf with various irregularities, as sian Fe: scallops and dentations, upon the Points OF INSERTION OF DoRSO-VENTRAL MUSCLES. * * , rst de- Fic. 75. Exterior tuberculous sculpture, with thick- edge. The thickenings first . ening. FiG. 76. Interior cells, without thickening. scribed are always of a yellow col- ators Se nenee-) or, more or less intense; a color which is the dominant one in nearly all families of spiders showing decided hues. In the second form of attachment the cuticle is colorless and trans- parent. In both cases the skin above the points of insertion is without ~— od name a, 114 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. hairs, and the linear thickenings of the tegument, in approaching these points, surround them in concentric circles. I have heretofore suggested that all action of the muscles upon the abdominal tegument may have much influence in the distribution of color for the formation of various patterns which mark spiders.1 Fig. 77 represents the tarsus and metatarsus of a Lycosid foot (Taren- tula), taken from the rejected skin. The tendons by which the tarsus and claw are moved are shown within the leg, and one sees the thickening of the tendons (e.t) at their free ends upon which the muscles are inserted. The claw and the entire dentition thereof, as may be seen, have left a perfect cast in the moulted tegument. The tendon passes from the claw in the form of a thick double cord, traversing the tarsus apart and uniting at the * articulation with the metatarsus, which joint is traversed nearly to the articulation with the tibia, where the cords join with the short stout muscles in- serted into the cuticle at that point. The silk glands in moulting undergo changes both in form and number, as with the tubuliform glands of tarentula shown at Fig. 78, after the second and third moults. Three different forms of glands appear (gl 1, gl 2, gl 3), corresponding possibly with the ampullate, tubuli- Tendons of Foot. Silk Glands. Fic. 78, Silk glands of a ta- : rentula at the periods of form, and pyriform glands of Epeira. second and third moults. finaljointsofaty-, | Adult spiders of the two sexes, according to Wagner, do cosid foot, show- not always possess the same silk glands. The females have ing the tendons Z A “ (e.t) that move the glands not observed in the males, which this author be- Fie. 77. Moult of tarsus and claw. — Jieves serve to supply the cocooning silk. However, in the earliest stages of life the silk glands of the male and female are alike. XI. These physiological facts in the moulting processes of spiders Mr. Wagner has himself thus summarized: 1. The rejection of the old skin constitutes only a part of the moulting process, and that a sec- ondary one. 2. The processes of a moult, in some of their features, commence a comparatively long time before, and end after the rejection of the skin and in connection therewith. 3. The spider, partly before casting off the old skin, partly at the moment of the act, and even for a brief period afterward, is deprived of some of its faculties: of sight, Sum- , mary. 1 Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, 1888, page 173. MOULTING HABITS OF SPIDERS. 115 hearing, and touch, of movement, and even of respiration for a short time. 4, To the moult are subject most of the ectodermic and part of the meso- dermic products. 5. The blood corpuscles, which with spiders are formed at the expense of the endoderm, are subject at each moult to periodic modifica- tions, the final result of which is their proliferation. The number of red blood corpuscles increases from being three or four per cent. to become ten per cent. of the whole. 6. Cotemporaneously with the above named periodic processes of moulting are wrought certain constant processes of interior and exterior modifications, which are chiefly accomplished at the moulting period with which they are found in more or less direct connection. 7. The modifications to which spiders are subject during their post embryonic development are by no means limited to shape and to the final develop- ment of the genital organs. 8. With the moulting of spiders are connected certain special faculties, which are proper to the animal only during the moulting period, such, for example, is the faculty of renewing lost organs. Thus, if a spider’s foot be lost during that period of life within which it is subject to moulting changes, it will be renewed after every moult; but if a limb be lost after the same period it will never be restored. 9. In con- nection with one or another of its various moults, the spider is found in possession of certain provisional organs, some of which soon disappear, others only with sexual maturity. 10. Finally, it may be stated that the moulting processes of spiders are almost exactly similar to those of the larvee of insects which undergo an incomplete metamorphosis, as the Orthoptera, Pseudoneuroptera, and Hemiptera. CHAPTER VI. REGENERATION OF LOST ORGANS AND ANATOMICAL NOMENCLATURE. Is THe regeneration of a spider’s lost legs and palps is a fact well known, and has been a subject of much observation, experiment, and speculation, In brief, it may be said that the action is the result of two processes, the atrophy of the old tissues and the formation of new, which are effected simultaneously and in the same period of time. If a spider’s leg be severed by accident or Xmputated, all the tissues which fill the stump of the leg gradually disappear, and within the cavity so formed a new organ originates and is completely developed. Among early writers upon this phenomenon is Dr. Heineken, who reached the following conclusions:! (1) Spiders can not only reject a mutilated extreme joint, but reproduce it; (2) as the period of . ae Ci moulting ceases reproduction ceases also, even from the suture; saieba (3) the power of reproducing the limbs is restricted to certain tions. periods of spiders’ lives, but as soon as the animal ceases to moult its skin, in other words, becomes adult, its limbs cease to be reproduced ; (4) until the growth of the limb was perfected, it appeared to Heineken that between the different moults little increase took place, and the act of moulting two or three times seemed to accomplish the full formation of the limb; (5) up to the period of the next moult the stump or suture, whichever it might be, remained externally unchanged; (6) the animal retired into a covering which it had woven for a day or two and then came forth with the limb or joint renovated. The above conclusions have been since shown to be substantially correct. Some of his inferences, however, are not yet verified, for example, his experiments and observations which seemed to indicate that spiders possess the power of throwing off their joints at will, at least under cer- tain circumstances. A large Lycosa, dropped by him into boiling water, instantly parted with six legs at the sutures. Another Lycosa on being held by one hind leg instantly threw it off. I have met nothing that confirms these statements, and know no similar records; and do not believe Renewal of Lost Organs. Heine- ? Experiments and Observations on the Casting Off and Reproduction of Legs in Crabs and Spiders by C. Heineken, M. D., Zoological Journal, Vol. IV., 1828-9, pages 284-294. (116) ss REGENERATION OF LOST ORGANS, 117 that spiders have the power to cast off limbs at will. The first example may have been a coincidence of the experiment with the full time for moulting, when the old tegument was just ready to be cast and was at once rejected through the sudden shock of the hot water plunge and the violent death struggles. The second case may have been simply an actual loss of a leg by handling. Dr. Heineken, however, seemed to have no doubt as to the power of the animal to reject a leg. Moreover, he noted that the spiders which cast off crushed limbs were “hunters; those which retained Self Am- them the webmakers; a difference for which he, accounts b putation. % : , Cane 2Ee. supposing that the former, perhaps, have the strongest induce- ment to the act, as an inert and powerless joint would be a greater inconvenience to them than the loss of the whole limb. Furthermore, a webmaker, being of stationary habit, is less liable to accidents than the hunter, which is constantly on the move, and generally exposed. On this point I may remark that I have often met Orbweavers with one, two, four, and even five legs wanting, the result’ either of moulting mishaps, or of adventures and battles with assailants of various sorts. It is not uncommon to find males in this condition, a consequence of the unfa- yorable attitude of females in courtship. One also occasionally finds spiders with contorted legs which we would think might better be off than on, did the aranead have the power of self amputation. Certainly, these lost and wounded limbs did not prevent the spinning of snares, for I have seen in two cases, at least, an Orbweaver with all the legs wanting on one side weaving an efficient web. Mr. Francis R. Welsh writes me that he saw an Orbweaver, which was probably Epeira insularis, that had lost seven of its feet (not legs) grasp with its spinnerets a spiral of its web, underneath which it hung, and hang thereto by the spinnerets only. It did not attach a dragline. It afterwards hung and moved by bowing its legs over the spirals of its web. A loss of this peculiar nature would probably have been occasioned by impeded moulting, and illustrates not only the perils of this act, but also the spider’s power of adapting itself to extraordinary disadvantages. Blackwall has published several important papers on this subject.1 But for the most thorough and satisfactory studies of the regeneration of excised members we are indebted to Mr. Waldemar Wagner. This enthusiastic araneologist has pursued the entire histological development of certain organs, especially the legs, from the moment of amputation until the appearance of the new limb, and I shall undertake to interpret, substantially, the facts as recorded by him.? Wagner’s Work. 1See, as already quoted, Trans. Linn. Soc., Vol. XVI., pages 482-84; Proceed. Brit. Assn. Adve. Sci., Vol. XIV., pages 70-74, and Spid. Gt. Brit. and Ir., Introduction, page 7. 2“QTa Regeneration des Organes Perdus chez les Araignées.” Voldemar Wagner. Bull. d. 1. Soc. Impér. des Naturalistes de Moscow, 1887, No. 4. 118 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK, aT. According to this observer, if a spider (Trochosa) lose a foot while very young, it will be restored at the last moult with such perfection that it cannot be distinguished from the others. If the member be ames lost at a more advanced age, after the eighth or ninth moult, it aan will be renewed imperfectly, and although the number of joints will be complete the restored limb can easily be distinguished. This is illustrated in Fig. 79, a drawing of the Huntsman spider, Heteropota ven- atoria, a specimen which I obtained in Florida, one of whose hind legs is seen to be shorter than the. other, a moulting defect. In such cases the defective limb is usually not only shorter but smaller, of paler color and with less numerous hairs. Such a fact indicates that Nature has provided a certain amount of vital force and substance, for the exigen- cies of a spider’s life, which cannot wholly answer the draughts made by the regeneration of adult limbs, although responding invariably to the Fic. 79. Huntsman spider with one leg (4) shortened in moulting. recuperative demands of early life. I have already referred to another case in point, a large tarantula, when speaking of the dangers of the moulting period,* As to the relative perfection with which lost limbs are reproduced, Blackwall considered it to. be in inverse ratio to the extent of injury. Thus he found that palps and legs detached at the coxa were Imperfect usually reproduced symmetrical but diminutive; while those aie amputated at the articulation of the digital with the radial joint, ‘ and near the middle of the tibia or of the metatarsus, were always much larger and unsymmetrical when restored. In point of fact, therefore, the development of the new limb depends upon the vital capacity of the undetached part. Thus, if a leg be amputated near the middle of +See Chapter V., above. REGENERATION OF LOST ORGANS. 119 the metatarsus the whole portion between that joint and the body will be reproduced of the same dimensions as the corresponding parts on the opposite leg; but the severed metatarsus and the tarsus will reappear much diminished. Precisely corresponding results follow similar excisions of any other joint.! In order to define the time necessary for regeneration of a lost limb Wagner cropped the feet of a number of subjects of different ages. He found that if the foot was amputated a little before the moulting period it was not renewed after the act, but instead a whitish papilla was seen in the stump where the future organ originates. After the next succeeding moult the member appeared small, pale, short, but after the moult next following that it was thicker and more like the normal. If the leg were amputated immediately after a moult it would be restored during the interval preceding the next moult. As a general rule it may be announced that a lost organ is restored in a period of time equal to that which separates two successive moults at that i stage in the development of the spider during which the limb is Period- Jost. If the foot of a spider is removed only two or three days ee aD) after a moult, a new limb is formed in the period which remains ation. until the following moult. For example, if the leg of Trochosa be removed during the period of the second moult, the forma- tion of a new member requires only five days, as that number is just the period which separates the second moult from the third. If the leg be cut away in the period of the sixth moult, a new one is formed in the space of ten days, because between the sixth and seventh moult there is an interval of from ten to twelve days. Thus, if the leg is clipped one or two days after a moult, a new member will ordinarily have time to form before the following moult. On the contrary, should a leg or a part thereof be removed at a period, before the moult next to follow, shorter than that naturally required at that stage of development for complete renewal, then the appearance of a new member will be deferred until another moult shall occur;? that is to say, two moults must intervene before the lost part is made good. For example, Mr. Wagner cut off the leg of a Trochosa four days after the sixth moult; the seventh moult took place ten days thereafter, but a new limb was not then formed, and did not appear until the next following moult, viz., the eighth, which occurred eighteen days after the seventh. In such a case, and all others, the stump of the severed limb, healed and overclosed by its chitinous cicatrix, retains the same appearance until replaced by the new member. _ This process of regeneration will be continued, as often as losses occur, during that period of life when the spider is subject to moult, that is to 1 Blackwall, Brit. Spid., Int., page 8. ? Blackwall also observed this fact. 120 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. say, until complete sexual maturity. After that period no lost organ or part thereof will be renewed, no matter how long thereafter the spider may live. The function is thus evidently designed to favor the maturity of the species and so insure its continuance. Til. As has been said, the regeneration of lost organs is the result of two processes, equally important and interesting, the atrophy of the old tissues and the formation of new. If one cuts off a spider’s foot all the Atrophy tissues which fill up the remainder of the limb disappear, and pA simultaneously a new organ is originated and completely devel- ‘oped within the cavity of the joint from which the old tissues have been atrophied. Immediately after the operation Nature begins to cover up the wound, the blood cells form a thick cellular mass, which in the course of three days is formed into a hard, dark scab, which serves as a stopple to the open wound. This is shown at Fig. 80, and a longitudinal sec- tion at Fig. 81. In Fic. 80. Fie. 81, the latter, one sees the Fic. 80. View of healed stump of a spider’s amputated limb. Fic.81. Lon- 9]d cuticle (ct) united gitudinal section of same; ctx, the cicatrix; ct, cuticle; mss, granular 2 mass next the cicatrix; ch.c, chitinized cells; b.c.a., amceboid blood cells; with the scab, and the b.cx., red blood cells. chitinous membrane under which is the row of deep cells of the matrix (Mtx). Immediately under the surface of the cicatrix lies a mass (mss) of unstratified mas: granular matter, next to which is a nest of cells arranged in cums rows one above another, gradually diminishing in length and - receding into the cavity beneath. Of these the upper tier are “chitinized” cells (ch.c), and the remainder blood cor- 0 ct B puscles, both red (b.c.r) and ameeboid (b.c.a), The transi- = : tion or destruction of these cells, and their metamorphosis into the structureless mass’ of the covering cicatrix, is accomplished gradually. | Now the matrix, which alone of all the tissues does not undergo entire degeneration, begins to retract little by