452 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



states that they are extra-European, many belonging to tropical an<l tem- 

 perate climes. Dr. G. Mayr thinks the amber ants have few relations 

 with ants of tropical Africa and America. 



IV. 



It may be remarked, in this connection, that a comparison of the fossil 

 spiders • of Europe with those of Florissant shows, on the whole, a general 

 corresi)ondence between the two fauna. Tlie same families are 

 Europe represented in the stratified deposits of Europe and America ; and 

 ^ . the correspondence holds good, to a considerable extent, as to the 

 amber species. Among Orbweavers this correspondence is not so 

 close, but obtains if we confine the comparison to families, and is true in 

 a measure of the genus Epeira and its near allies. Of the Oeningen spi- 

 ders one is an Epeira. From the Brown-coal the Gea of Von Heyden' 

 is an Epeira also, according to Thorell.'-^ Of the Amber species,^ Groea 

 Thor. (Gea Koch and Berendt), and Antopia (Menge) are near Epeira; Siga 



(Menge) is near Zilla. All of 

 these belong with the family 

 Epeirinte. Androgens (Koch 

 and Ber.) alone probably be- 

 longs to another family, the 

 Uloborinse. Scudder divides 

 the Orbweaving species of Flor- 

 issant among four genera, Eiie- 

 Fi,i, 373. Fir.. 374. h'a, Tetluicus (new), Nephila, 



Fossil spiders from the amber. (After Berendt.") r^jid Tetraguatha, all Epclrina). 



Fig. 372. Gea epeiroidea. Fi(i. 373. Androgens militaris; male. ,. .i /-\ ^ 



Thus all the Orbweavers ni 

 both continents, with the exception of Androgens (if Androgens be, indeed, 

 an Orbweaver), belong to the same family Epeirina), and most of them to 

 Epeira and closely related genera. 



The above comparison also shows a close resemblance between existing 

 si)ider fauna and that of the Tertiary both of Euro]5e and America. For 

 example, the Orbweaving genera Epeira, Zilla, Tetraguatha, and 

 ^°^^|:^" Nephila are now common to both hemispheres, are all found in 

 Fauna " ^'"^ United States, and the first three abundant. We should con- 

 sider, moreover, how closely related the remaining fossil genera 

 are to these and other existing ones. Tethneus, Gea, Groea, and Antopia 

 (Epeira), Siga (Zilla), and Androgens (Uloborus) can, in this view, scarcely 

 be said with confidence to differ from existing Orbweaving genera. The 



' PaleontoRraphica, Beitrage zur Naturgcschichtc der Vorwelt, Band VIII. "Fossile 

 Insekten aus dcr Rhoinischen Braun-kiihle," von C. von Heyden. Taf." I., Fig. 11, page 2. 

 (Jea krantzi Ileyd. Fundort: Rott, Saiiindung Krantz. ' European Spiders, page 2i3. 



•' Ibid. ■• Oj). cit. Ijelow, Tab. 111., Figs. 12, 17. 



