F. M. CAMPBELL — OBSERVATIONS ON SPIDERS. 41 



NotwitlistaTidinc: the discovery of Prof. Wcstring,* that some 

 spiders (Tlieridiidai) possess stridubitiiig- orjj'ans on the ccphalo- 

 tliorax and the base of the abdomen, and the subsequent account 

 of a striduhitinc: myjiale f found in Assam, I resolved to try a few 

 experiments with the view of testing how far spiders could be 

 atfceted by sound and music. 



"Walckenfer | writes that Grctry relates in his memoirs, that 

 a spider came to a piano as soon as it was played. D'Oliver, in the 

 ' Histoire de I'Academie Franqaisc,' tells the romantic story of 

 Pellisson, Avho, when imprisoned, fed a spider which had spun its 

 web in the air-hole of his dungeon, and after a few months trained 

 it to run up as high as his knees to be fed at the sound of a 

 Basque bagpipe. 



The first experiment I tried was with a tuning-fork (C) in a 

 small out-house where there were many spiders. Only one was 

 attracted, and it followed the vibrating fork from place to place, 

 but having allowed it to approach close to the open side of the 

 sounding-box, it ran away as fast as it could for some little distance, 

 and then remained stationary. The following day the note pro- 

 duced no visible effect on the same spider, — indeed, I have found that 

 I coukl not always rely on constant results from these experiments. 

 The tamest spider I had [Tegenaria domestica) was unfortunately 

 allowed to escape. At a tune from a musical box she would open 

 her spinnerets — an act which is common to spiders when expectant 

 of food — and go to the centre of her web, where she used to be fed. 

 It took me some weeks thus to train her, and the first sign of re- 

 conciliation to her imprisonment was an angry movement of the 

 falces when I touched her, whereas previously she used to run 

 away. On one occasion I placed a few feet from a T. domestica 

 a vessel into which I had swept a mass of gnats from an out-huuse 

 in winter. There must have been at least a hundred, and the 

 "piping" was great. The spider became violently excited long 

 before he could have seen them, and when he did see them was shortly 

 so surrounded that he struck at them indiscriminately with his legs, 

 reminding one of a young sportsman shooting at a large covey of 

 birds. He succeeded in bringing down several. I have often 

 startled spiders some distance off by the banging of a door, and 

 their agitation could not be explained by supposing any current of 

 air to have disturbed either them or their webs. The above are 

 only a few of many experiments. 



1 have but little to say on the sense of sight. It would appear 

 from the movements of spiders while spinning their webs that 



* ' Xahir-historisk Tidskrift,' vol. iv, 1842-3, p. 349, and vol. ii, 1846-9, 

 p. 342 ; and ' Araniae Suecicpe,' p. 184. Since the above was written I find that 

 the females of Ther'uUon guttatitm have these organs as well as the males. "West- 

 ring states males only. I have also discovered what appear to be undoubted 

 organs of a similar function on the palpi and falces in Liny phi a tcnebricola, a 

 spider ^ of an inch in length, and have read a paper before the Linneau Society 

 on both subjects. 



t Wood-^[ason, in 'Trans. Entomological Soc' 1877. 



+ ' Histoire des Apteres,' vol. i, p. 110. 



