256 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



These examples indicate that the ordinary instincts of spiders are 



held well under control. There are periods when certain instincts wholly 



dominate action, which at other times are held in subordina- 



Subordi- i[Qy^ One is not surj^rised to see this in such rare or unique 



T .■ . instincts as the sexual impulse. But to see the same phe- 

 Instincts. ^ . . ^ 



nomenon in the sentiments that control daily life, and to see 

 it frequently occurring, and so manifestly under the volition of the 

 animal, is certainly more notable. In the examples just cited it is seen 



that the feeding habit is held 

 in subordination by the in- 

 dustrial impulse when net 

 making is in order ; and a 

 very complete subjection it 

 surely is which constrains a 

 hungry spider to truss up a 

 fly or carry one about in its 

 jaws until a snare is finished, 

 or even cast it wholly out of 

 the web. 



I once found a nearly ma- 

 ture Argiope cophinaria hang- 

 ing in the centre of 

 Laying- j^^^. Q^h engaged in 



sucking the juices 

 from a fly, which 

 she kept underneath her jaws 

 and appeared to be handling 

 entirely by the use of her 

 palps. In the meanwhile she 

 held attached to her fore feet 

 on either side two swathed 

 flies, one suspended by a sin- 

 gle thread, and another by a 

 double one. Evidently she 

 was troubled with what the French call an embarrassment of riches. It is 

 rare to see a Sedentary spider eating thus without the aid of the fore legs. 

 Another Cophinaria was observed with five flies, three of them large 

 blue bottles, fastened at various parts of her web, most of them well 

 towards the margin. Two of the blue bottles were completely wrap})ed in 

 white swathing silk, and were covered from one end to another with a 

 host of small black dipterous flies, that were trying to feed upon the car- 

 casses of their huge, mummied congeners. Argiope appeared to be entirely 

 regardless of the presence of these little creatures. They adhered so closely 

 to the carcass that when the spider violently shook her web they rode 



by in 

 Store. 



Fig. 237. Dwarf flies banqueting with a giantess spider 

 (Argiope cophinaria). 



