240 The Ohio Jounial of Science [Vol. XX, No. 7, 



A variety of this species, Aranea trifolium candicans, was also 

 studied. 



Epeira trifolium makes a large complete orb web and places 

 it preferably in tall grass, on Boneset stalks {Eupatoriiim per- 

 foliatum), on Ironweed {Vernonia gigantea) or berry bushes. 

 A retreat is made above the web by drawing together several 

 leaves and making a tent. The leaves are pulled together in 

 such a way as to make a retreat that is difficult to detect. A 

 trapline extends from the retreat to the hub of the web and as 

 soon as an insect gets into the web, the spider comes down the 

 trapline, wraps up the insect in a swathing band and carries it 

 up to the retreat where the soft parts are eaten and the chitinous 

 parts are discarded. In case the spider does not want to eat the 

 insect immediately she returns to her position in the retreat, 

 leaving the insect tied up in the web where it became entangled. 



Where one of these spiders has a web in a patch of Ironweeds 

 or Boneset, many honey bees fly into the web which is vertical 

 or nearly so. In such places, one frequently finds a web with 

 a half dozen or more bees in it. A peculiar color adaptation was 

 noticed in this spider. Early in the season all the individuals 

 were either white without markings or grayish with white 

 markings. Later in the season nearly all of them were of a 

 reddish brown color and some were nearly purple. At first I 

 concluded that this was due to the different ages of the spiders. 

 Later on in the season I came upon a couple of instances which 

 have changed my opinion. I found a large specimen which 

 made its web in a clump of Bitter Sweet bushes. A retreat was 

 made above the web in the dead leaves of a branch of an oak 

 tree. The limb had fallen into the bush with the leaves still 

 hanging on it. The spider lived here undisturbed a long time 

 and became the same color as the dead oak leaves. Nowhere 

 else did I find a spider of that peculiar color nor did I find any 

 other spider having a retreat in dead oak leaves. If the environ- 

 ment had no effect on the color of the spider, one would have 

 expected to find similarly colored individuals in other places. 

 Why should this one spider become so nearly alike the retreat 

 if the retreat did not exert an influence on the spider? Another 

 question might be advanced here. Why should the spider 

 change color if coloration were for protection or an aid in pro- 

 curing food? The spider conceals itself in the retreat until some 

 insect flies into the web and it seems that color resemblance 



