TOILET AND HOUSEKEEPING HABITS. 



17 



Tarantu- 

 la's Toilet 



The drawing Fig. 5 shows Argiope cophinaria as seen in tliis phase of 

 making the toilet. The sides of the abdomen are cleansed by brushing 

 tliem with the sides of the third pair of legs, which are pressed against the 

 body and pushed downward, as one would stroke a cat's hair with his 

 hand. The cleansing of the dorsal part of the abdomen is effected by 

 throwing a hind leg over the top thereof and moving it downward towards 

 the spinners, keeping it meanwhile pressed against the skin. The .spines 

 and bristles on the legs thus act as a comb or brush. 



I have often had opportunity to note like habits of personal cleanli- 

 ness in our American Mygalida?. My longlived tarantula " Leidy " was 



remarkably tidy. Always after digging 



in its burrow it was quite sure to cleanse 



its person, and, by reason of its size, 

 the use of its palps in wiping off the fore part 

 of its body presented an amusing likeness to the 

 familiar action of pussy when washing her face 

 with her paws. The fore legs were cleansed by 

 placing them against the palps and rubbing the 

 two together. The toilet was also accomplished 

 by overlapping one leg with the other, the second 

 leg over the third, for example, and then rubbing 

 the two as if a man were to scratch his legs by 

 drawing the inner surface of one along the front 

 surface of the other. The first leg was thus rub- 

 bed against the second, of course being pressed 

 down upon it meanwhile. The palp was thrown 



Fi(i. 5. Argiope cleansing a hind- 

 ermost foot by drawing it 

 through the fangs. 



ed "with 

 Ants. 



back to the first leg, which it brushed off in the 

 same manner. 



It is interesting, and suggestive of the substan- 

 tial unity in the primary functions of life which 

 prevades living things, to note this com- 

 ^^^P^^'^" munity of habit and method between 



a vertebrate and an arachnid. The same may be remarked of 

 the ants, whose toilet habits I have carefully observed and de- 

 scribed in my "Agricultural Ant of Texas. "^ The methods of cleaning their 

 persons practiced by ants and sjiiders are quite similar ; more so, indeed, 

 than one would suppose, considering the remarkable difference in the gen- 

 eral life economy of the two creatures. It is not a particularly striking fact, 

 but rather what one would expect, that a spider should hang herself up by 

 a hind foot to comb, brush, and wash herself. But it strikes one as some- 

 what out of the ordinary that an ant should resort to the same turnverein 

 process, yet it does so, as I have shown in the case of the Agricultural 



■ Chapter VIII. on Toilet, Sleeping, and Funeral Habits. 



