452 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



states that they are extra-European, many belonging to tropical ami tem- 

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

 with ants of tropical Africa and America. 



IV. 



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

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

 correspondence between the two fauna. The 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 Hej^den^ 

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

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



(Menge) is near Zilla. All of 

 these belong with the family 

 Eijeiriuae. Androgens (Koch 

 and Ber.) alone probably be- 

 longs to another family, the 

 Uloborinte. Scudder divides 

 the Orbweaving species of Flor- 

 issant among four genera, Epe- 

 fk;. 373. Fu^ 374. i'''^> Tetliueus (new), Nephila, 



Fossil spiders from the amber. (After Berendt.--) and Tctragliatha, all Epeiriuffi. 



Fig. 372. Gea epeiroidea. Fiu. 373. Audrogeus militaris; male. ,^, n, .-i ^ n 



Thus all the Orbweavers m 



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



an Orb weaver), belong to the same family Epeirinoe, and most of them to 



Epeira and closely related genera. 



The above comparison also shows a close resemblance between existing 



spider fauna and that of the Tertiary both of Europe and America. For 



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



ossi an >^pp]|j]a are now common to both hemisjiheres, are all found in 



TTo, ,,-,=■ the United States, and the first three abundant. We should coll- 

 ie aun£t. ' 



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 Androgeus (Uloborus) can, in this view, scarcely 

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



' Paleoiitographica, Beitrage zur Naturgeschichte der Vorwelt, Band "S'lII. " Fossile 

 Insekten avis dor Rheinisdien Braun-ki)lile," von C. von Heyden. Taf. I., Fig. 11, page 2. 

 Gea krantzi Heyd. Fiindoit : Rott, Samndung Krantz. - European Spidei-s, page 2i3. 



3 Ibid. ' '■ Up. I'it. below, Tab. III., Figs. 12, 17. 



