﻿THE HABITS AND LIFE HISTORY OF A SOCIAL 



SPIDER (STEGODYPHUS SARASINORUM 



KARSCH) 



By N. S. JAMBUNATHAN 



Of the many creatures that attract attention, one of the most 

 common is the spider. Every hedge-row glistens with the snares 

 so cunningly laid by these little hunters. They are found every- 

 where, and no place is too sacred for their occupation. The walls 

 you lean against, the corners you look into, the books you begin to 

 dust, the grassy lawns over whose soft beds you delight to walk, 

 and even the flowers whose fragrance you enjoy, contain the spiders 

 peculiar to each of these localities. Some there are that run, that 

 spin," that dive, some that even dig to catch their prey— thus pursu- 

 ing several of the various crafts and industries of men,— spinning, 

 weaving, diving, and mining. Some spiders seem to be successful 

 aeronauts performing long journeys across mountains, rivers, gulfs, 

 and seas — by means of their slender threads. These facts and many 

 others concerning their extraordinary habits and intelligence have 

 already been noted by man. 



Simon, a French arachnologist, first hazarded the statement that 

 some spiders exhibit a form of social living. This assertion I find 

 questioned by that eminent American entomologist, the Reverend 

 Doctor McCook, who maintains " that all spiders are solitary in their 

 habits and that the discovery of a social species, if confirmed, would 

 be most important. Males and females might be seen living amicably 

 together for a considerable period, but this cannot be social living " 

 (vide Scientific American, page 186, September 17, 1892). 



From this we may easily see that the question as to the existence 

 of communal spiders is a debated one. My study of social insects 

 generally led me to a closer investigation of the habits of the spiders 

 of southern India, and in March, 1898, I discovered at Saidapet, 

 Madras, a group which I believe may properly be termed " social 

 spiders." 



These spiders live in a sponge-like nest of ramified net-work of 

 inter-communicative canals with a number of outside openings. The 

 nests, often seen attached to the ends of the branches of trees or to 

 leaves of the prickly pear, are ash-gray in color and made of dried 



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