BEHAVIOR OF SPIDERS AND OTHER INSECTS 399 



Fabre* states that the praying mantis of Europe is polyan- 

 drous and that the female eats her spouse. Phil and Nellie 

 Rau (86) write that our American praying mantis (Stegomantis 

 Carolina) is both polyandrous and polygamous. 



Fabre (39) describes the mating of several spiders. That of 

 the angular epeira, a large garden spider, is peculiar. At nine 

 o'clock on an August evening, the female was resting on the 

 foundation line of her web. Cautiously a small male approached 

 and receded several times. After a short period of this behavior, 

 the two lovers were face to face. The female was calm and 

 motionless; the male bristling with excitement. Timidly he 

 touched her with a leg and then suddenly dropped from the 

 support, spinning his drag-line as he fell. Returning, he teased 

 her with legs and palpi. Gripping the thread with her tarsi, 

 the female turned several somersaults and then presented the 

 under side of her paunch to the dwarf and allowed him to fondle 

 it with his palpi. Mating once accomplished, the male darted 

 away, never to return. 



NEST-BUILDING AND MATERNAL INSTINCTS 



Coad (26) describes the oviposition of the mosquito Culex 

 abominator and Fabre (39) relates many interesting things about 

 the maternal instincts of spiders. 



Buttrick (20) reports that the eggs of the salt-marsh mosquito 

 C. sollicitans Walk, are deposited singly upon the mud of a salt 

 marsh, where they remain dormant until covered by the tide 

 or the rain. Then they hatch in a few hours and become adults 

 in from six to fifteen days. 



Parrott (81) describes the oviposition of three species of tree 

 crickets: Oecanthus nivcus DeGeer deposits its eggs singly at 

 the sides of dormant buds, in the fleshy region, at the axils of 

 the leaves of the apple, elm, plum, cherry, peach, walnut, wild 

 crab, hawthorn, witchhazel, chestnut, red oak, maple, butter- 

 nut, lilac and raspberry; O. nigricornis lays its eggs, in rows, 

 upon the raspberry, blackberry, horseweed, goldenrod, willow, 

 elder, maple, elm, sumac, grape, peach and probably others; 

 O. quadripunctatus oviposits in weeds, principally the wild carrot, 

 goldenrod and aster. The eggs are arranged in rows. 



Phil and Nellie Rau (86) announce that it requires two hours 



* Social Life in the Insect World. The Century Co., 1912, pp. 79-85. 



