68 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



the treacherous viscid or adherent hues. The action must also tend in 

 some measure to locate the position of a victim. Can it possibly at times 

 tend to produce a current of air into which insects are attracted ? At all 

 events, when Pholcus phalangioides is annoyed by being touched with 

 pencil or finger, she is pretty sure to begin moving her body, and in a 

 little while is swinging herself around, her body describing a circle which 

 represents the base of a cone, of which the point whereat her clustered 

 feet hold on to her line will be the apex. 



VI. 



Professor Wilder relates an interesting example of the tendency of young 



Argiope cophinaria to make excursions from the egg enclosure when oppor- 

 tunity presents. Numerous cocoons 

 were found at James Island, South 

 Carolina, which had been torn open 



by birds to get nest building material. From 



the breach fragmentary wads and rolls of silk 



floss protruded, along which the spiderlings 



crawled, and finding themselves in the fresh 



air and sunshine concluded to enjoy the same. 



They would swing down from the projecting 



roll in long festoons, singly, or sometimes 



clinging to one another like bees when they 



swarm, but always retained their connection 



with the cocoon, to which they returned 



when satisfied witii their taste of sunlight | 



and liberty.^ One is inclined to note here a 



judicious mingling of conservative caution 



with youthful sportiveness. 



Baby 

 Spiders. 



Fig. 49. Baby spiders on 

 a holiday excursion. 

 (Adapted from Wilder.) 



YII. 



In Vol. I. of this work were considered the poison apparatus of spiders 

 and the effects of tiieir poison upon animals and man. Since then numer- 

 ' . ous contributions upon the general subject have been made by 



pi er j-,^a,^y persons, from widely separated parts. Some of the most 

 valuable of these have been published in " Insect Life," the ofii- 

 cial journal of the Entomological Bureau of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture. These leave the facts substantially as generalized by me, 

 and my own view thereof is therefore unchanged, as follows : The poison 

 secreted by spiders is sparingly used, and it is not neeessaiy for securing 

 prey ; its object is probably chiefly defensive, and its effect ui»on creatures 

 of its own rank and size may often be serious and fatal; the effect upon 



Harper's Magazine, March, 1867, page 458. 



