18 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



ant.i I reproduce a figure from the above work to show the likeness noted. 

 (Fig. 1.) In sooth, one may go further up the grade of zoological life, even 

 to the apex of the pyramid, anji note that man himself in the act of 

 combing his hair unconsciously adopts artificial implements which resemble 

 the natural combs and brushes supplied in the tibial combing spur of ants, 

 and the hairs, bristles, and tarsal scopulffi of spiders. The economic har- 

 mony, here at least, certainly threads vast intervals of being. 



II. 



The tidiness of spiders is further shown by the fact that they are 

 extremely loth to sully with excrement the boxes in which they are im- 

 prisoned. I continually oljserve that, when emptying my collect- 

 Tidy ij-jg boxes in order to colonize spiders on my vines, the first act 

 house- jg ^^ ^^j^i excreta, which they often do with great freeness, in 

 large white drops, showing that they have really done violence 

 to nature by retaining the same rather than mar the little box in which 

 they were confined. So, also, they are careful in this natural act to avoid 

 fouling their webs. The abdomen is thrown so far outward that the voided 

 matter never comes in contact with the web lines. 



It is interesting to observe an Orbweaver in the process of cleansing 

 its web from material which has fallen upon it. I made a complete obser- 

 vation of a female specimen of the Shamrock si)ider engaged at 

 House- ^^jg work. Several leaves of an ampelopsis vine on which her 

 snare was spun, and two bits of the stem thereof, one at least 

 four inches long, had become entangled in the lower part of the orb. The 

 spider had just commenced the work of clearing away this extraneous 

 material when my observation began. 



She was hanging by a line which she had attached to the hub of her 

 orb, and which dropped down upon the inside of the web, so that she 

 faced the leaf that she was then about to remove. One hind foot reached 

 upward beyond the abdomen and held to this line, which, of course, was 

 also attached to the spinnerets. (Fig. 6.) During part of the operation the 

 other hind foot was stretched backward, and clasped the line near the spin- 

 ners, as though to give additional poise and security to her position. But 

 throughout a large part of the entire operation of clearing away the debris 

 she hung by one hind foot alone, and used the other one for the work of 

 dragging out, revolving, and expelling the material. In this position, hang- 

 ing thus opposite her point .of endeavor, she reminded me of painters 

 swinging upon their little seats by ropes fastened far above and engaged 

 in painting the sides of a house ; or of workmen let down from heights 

 for the various pur^joses of their handicrafts. This position Avas never 

 abandoned for the whole period of time, the spider being able to swing 



' Pogonomyrmex barbatus. Ibid., page 129 and pi. xvii., Fig. 80. 



