232 The Ohio Journal of Science [Vol. XX, No. 7^ 



Agelena will attack a grasshopper much larger than itself 

 but will rarely attack a large beetle. The probable reason for 

 this seems to be that the Agelena relies on dispatching her 

 victim by striking a vital spot with its chelicerse. In case the 

 insect is strongly chitinized as most beetles are, she seldom 

 ever puts up a fight, but prefers to let them alone. I think a 

 probable reason for this is, she is afraid to engage in mortal 

 combat with an insect of which she is unable to strike the fatal 

 spot at the first blow and in that case injury may come to her- 

 self. Smaller insects and grasshoppers are easily killed and 

 often one sees this spider dragging a grasshopper over the top 

 of the web holding the hind legs with the cheliceras. 



The feeding period extends over a long period of time. 

 The first funnel webs were noted on May 4, 1913, and the last 

 ones were seen the 28th of October, 1913. This fact, together 

 with the great numbers of them and the kind of insects they 

 eat, make it, in my opinion, the most valuable spider to the 

 agriculturist from an economic point of view. The fact that 

 this spider destroys almost entirely insects of an injurious 

 character is a point worth considering. The food consists 

 mostly of insects that do not have strongly chitinized bodies, 

 but this spider, like many others, I believe, will eat most any 

 kind of insect if the situation of the web makes it necessary to 

 do so. The situation of the web and the prevalence of the 

 insects in large measure determine the character of the food. 

 Since Agelena's web is most often in the grass, where grass- 

 hoppers, jassids and capsids are the prevalent insects, they 

 are most liable to be the food. The peculiar mode in which 

 these insects fly from place to place also increases the chance 

 of their alighting on the web of this spider. An insect such as a 

 bee usually flies at some distance from the ground and does not 

 alight unless it is attracted by a flower or something similar 

 but grasshoppers and jassids fly from one place to another and 

 come down in a sort of hit and miss way, so that their chances 

 of falling upon a web of this kind are greatly increased. 



The number of these spiders in any given area is enormous. 

 In order to determine how numerous this spider is, I counted 

 them on several different areas. In a clearing which was full 

 of stumps and brush piles and which is an ideal place for this 

 spider, I counted them in midsummer when most of them were 

 nearly full grown. On an area of two and one-half acres, 



