188 



valuable, since such a good foundation has already been built by Hub- 

 bard and Hopkins. 



J. Tlie P or est Undergrowth Community 



Above the soil, in the layer of herbaceous and shrubby vegeta- 

 tion in the Bates woods, lives a considerably different assemblage of 

 animals from that in the soil. Running about over this vegetation, or 

 resting on it, are found the harv^est-spiders, and in webs spread between 

 trees and shrubs are found Hpeira insularis and verrucosa, and Acro- 

 sonia spinea and riigosa. 



In the Cottonwood forest at Urbana, cutting has made rather open 

 spaces so that there is considerable undergrowth, including much spice 

 bush (Benzoin) ; among these bushes two spiders thrive, Hpeira in- 

 sularis Hentz and B. domicilioruni Hentz. The leaf-footed bug, Lep- 

 toglossus oppositus Say (PI. XXH, fig. 4) also abounded on these 

 plants. Insularis is also in the Brownfield woods. The jumping 

 spider Phidippus audax Hentz, and Acrosoma rugosa were also taken 

 in the Cottonwood forest. In a dense shady flood-plain forest at Mun- 

 cie, Illinois, Acrosoma rugosa and Bpeira verrucosa and lahyrinthica 

 were taken August 3. The harvest-spiders Liobununi are largely 

 animal scavengers, but the true spiders are of course strictly pre- 

 daceous. The loca.tion of the spider-w^ebs, near the ground, attests 

 the flight of insects upon which they depend for food. The numerous 

 snails feed to a large degree upon the herbaceous plants of this lower 

 layer, as do plant-feeding Hemiptera and the grass-eating Lcpidoptera, 

 including the woodland butterflies Enodia and Cissia. other Lcpidop- 

 tera, and Everes, Autographa, Polygonia, and, possibly the katydid 

 Amblycoryph-a. In the shrub layer Epeira domicilioriim, folded 

 among leaves, is a characteristic animal. It seems to thrive best in 

 more open woods than those in which Acrosoma abounds. Nettles 

 (Laportea) and clearweed (Pilea) were not searched for animals, 

 but were undoubtedly inhabited by a number of kinds. The same is 

 true of the shrubs. Young trees in this layer appear less liable to 

 attack by gall-producing insects than larger trees are. 



The following insects feed upon woodland shrubs, and were taken 

 at Bloomington : Ceranihycidcc — Liopus alpha Say, June 18 (bred 

 from sumac by Felt, '06, p. 482), and taken by me on elm during 

 June; Liopus fascicidaris Harr. {xanthoxyli Shimer), June, re- 

 corded as from prickly ash, Zanthoxylum (Packard, '90, p. 659) ; and 

 Molorchus himaculatus Say, copulating April 17, reported from dog- 

 wood, redbud, twigs of maple and hickory, (1. c, '90, p. 293. 424). 

 The curculionid Conotrachclus scniculus Lee, was taken October 10, 

 1891. from the inside of a very ripe papaw at Bloomington; another 



