254 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



mouth with a door fitting accurately into a beveled lip. In the manufac- 

 ture of these doors fragments of moss, the only material at the spiderling's 

 disposal, were used in place of earth.' 



The behavior of two of the brood of Epeira sclopetaria referred to (Vol. 



I., page 150), was notable as showing in its plenitude the presence of the 



strongest instincts immediately after egress. A small insect, wliile 



oung- liovering around the lamp, was snared in the straggling lines. A 



spiderling near by instantly ran to it, threw out from its wee 



spinnerets jets of filaments, and completely enswathed the creature precisely 



in the manner of an adult. 



Another of the brood began in a few minutes after its coming to make 



. an orbweb. Tlie foundations were attached to the end of one of the lines 



hanging to the lamp globe by dropping a tliread to the table, a distance of 



eighteen inches; then a triangular frame was formed by uniting a point 



of this thread to the opposite end of the upper line ; within this frame a 



,,^^_^ perfect orb was spun. (See Fig. 141, page 151, Vol. I.) I 



obsei'ved the wliole proce.ss, laying in the radii, spinning the 



notched zone, the foundation spirals, the beaded spirals; all was 



complete, and an exact likeness of a perfect adult web. Neither 



of these young spiders could have been more than half an 



hour out of the natal tent ; nor had they any previous ex- 



l)erience, having been excluded from all spinningwork what- 



Epeira swing- socvcr ; uor had they taken food of any sort. There was no 



ing in a foot cauuilialism within cocoon or tent before the egress of the 



basket 



brood, as not a single dead individual remained ; every egg 

 had hatched a perfect spider, and all the brood were gone, except three 

 living ones, who remained within the tent until the next day. Nothing 



could more fully demonstrate the facts that the perfect exercise 

 Charac- ^^ ^jjg function of spinning, and the full possession of the char- 

 TT , . acteristic habit of capturing prey, are innate witli the spider- 



Innate. l'"g' ^"<^l dependent upon and influenced by nothing external 



whatsoever. These facts, indeed, I have often demonstrated in 

 the various families and species by exjieriments quite as conclusive as the 

 above. 



A curious deviation from the luuuiony whicli prevailed tln'ougliout this 

 Epeira brood was shown by the s})ider which made the above mentioned 

 web and another who chanced to straggle upon it. The intruder passed 

 along a radius toward the hub where the Orbweaver hung awaiting prey. 

 The latter immediatel}' turned and seized the radius with her feet, her 

 little frame meanwhile showing in every part the vigor iind ex}>ectancv of 

 her kind when a victim strikes the web. 



A series of pulls and counter })ulls ensued; then tlie two araneads ap- 



^ M. H. Liuas, Bull, des Seances de la Soi'. Entdiu. de Fiance, Xo. 27, i)age 107, 1S74. 



