262 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



I have sometimes succeeded in tempting tarantulas to suck the juice 

 of a bit of raw beef, but the only food that can be relied upon is living 

 insects ; and these spiders appear to be able to lay up within the four or five 

 months of summer enough nourishment, in connection with a free supply 

 of water, to last them during the entire year. These Mygalidse do not be- 

 come torpid in winter time, but remain active throughout the entire sea- 

 son, provided they are kept in a room heated to a moderate temperature. 

 If exposed to a severe cold they are soon benumbed, but quickly recover 

 when again brought into a warm atmosphere. 



IV. 



Although spiders can long survive without food it is absolutely neces- 

 sary, as far as my experience extends, that they should be continually sup- 

 plied with water. I have frequently received species of various 

 ^^f tribes which had been shipped through the post office and were 

 taken out of their packages apparently in the last stages of life. 

 These I have often succeeded in restoring by applying them to water^ — 

 placing them in such a position that their mouth organs would be near or 

 over a drop of the liquid. In a longer or shorter time, according to the 

 degree of exhaustion, but also, I think, varying with the peculiar consti- 

 tution of the species, many of these would be restored and become as active 

 as ever. 



This is a common experience with those who have kept spiders in 

 artificial conditions for the sake of observation and experimentation. Mr. 

 Campbell says of the common English house spider, Tegenaria guyonii, 

 that the habits of the females of this species, spending as they do an ap- 

 parently sedentary life in dry places, render it difficult to see how they can 

 obtain water except during their occasional excursions. Yet the frequent 

 supply of water or a damp atmosphere is necessary for spiders. He had 

 kept a Tegenaria guyonii for more than twenty-seven months without any 

 liquid except that which she derived from insects. In one case a spider 

 that he was keeping was found lying helpless at the bottom of the bottle 

 with her legs drawn close to her body. He immediately filled a tube with 

 water and dropped some on her back and in front of her. She quickly 

 ■balanced herself, and, wetting the last joints of her palps, placed them to 

 her maxilla3. This she did five times and then advanced and 

 rm mg. j^^^^^j,^^-^ j^^j, whole body so that the maxilla? were dipped in the 

 water. Thus she remained, apparently motionless, for a few seconds, 

 when she raised herself to her normal position, and repeated the draught 

 after an interval of a few minutes. Shortly afterwards she mounted to 

 her usual roost at the shoulder of the bottle, with her abdomen consider- 

 ably distended.^ 



1 F. Maule Campbell, Jour. Linn. Soc. Zool., XVI., page 537. 



