COLOR AND THE BEHAVIOR OF ARTHROPODS 99 



mained almost where they were placed for a long time, others 

 at once spread gauzy aeroplanes and ballooned away to new 

 fields ; no two spiders did similar things and it is impossible 

 to tabulate the results. The writer quotes the following from 

 his field note-book: "After two days I can see no difference 

 in the way yellow spiders behave on white and yellow flowers; 

 white spiders same." No difference that could be assigned to 

 the influence of color environment was observed. 



(c) The Reactions toward bees and wasps. In order to ascer- 

 tain whether ihe behavior of Misumena toward colors was such 

 that most individuals would escape in the presence of predaceous 

 insect enemies, some observations bearing on this question 

 were made. 



On two occasions, two or three hours were spent in watching 

 the behavior of Misumenas placed on flowers which were being 

 frequently visited by bees and wasps. On September 14, 1910, 

 three yellow individuals were placed on a bunch of fleabane 

 daisies {Erigeron annuus), which was being prospected con- 

 stantly by from fifty to seventy-five bees and wasps. The honey 

 bee, Apis mellifica, was the most frequent visitor, and among the 

 wasps, the commoner representatives were two sfjecies identified 

 as Polistes pallipes and Philanthus solivagus by Mr. S. A. Rohwer, 

 to whom they were referred by Dr. L. O. Howard. One of the 

 Misumenas at once hid itself deep in a cluster of flowers and was 

 not seen again during the two hours the observation lasted. 

 One of the other spiders hung on the under side of a small flower 

 cluster, and the third chose a position in plain sight on top of 

 one of the highest sprigs of the fleabane. The individual which 

 was hanging on the under side of the flowers avoided bees and 

 wasps; once it moved aw^ay when a bee approached, but it 

 usually remained perfectly motionless and concealed itself as 

 much as possible when a winged disturber came near. On the 

 other hand, the Misumena which chose the conspicuous situation 

 behaved in quite a different manner; it rested with outstretched 

 legs ready to attack; when one of the largest wasps {Philanthus 

 solivagus) alighted near, it rushed toward the intruder with 

 raised legs, and the wasp at once went elsewhere to forage. 



On September 15, 1910, five yellow spiders were put on boneset 

 blossoms and watched from 2.30 p. m. until 5.00 p. m. One 

 dropped to the ground at once, one wandered a good deal from 



