﻿jambunathan] life history of social spider 371 



members of the nest either desert it, one by one, to found, perhaps, 

 new colonies elsewhere, or voluntarily starve themselves, or are 

 starved to death by the rapacity and greed of the younger genera- 

 tion. In the nest at this stage I have found the young ones very 

 active, while the members of the older generation were scarcely able 

 to move. Later, I found only the dried remains of a few old ones 

 to mark their former presence in the nest. Closer examination 

 makes me strongly affirm that the dried remains are not the skins 

 generally east away after moulting, but the real bodies of the spiders 

 shrunken and shrivelled up. In some nest I have also found one or 

 two members of the older generation living with those of the younger 

 generation. 



Like other creatures, these spiders are subject to the varying in- 

 fluences of heat and cold, and show in some instances remarkable 

 powers of adjustment. Living, as they do, in the tropics, they have 

 learned a method of protecting themselves from heat by building 

 their nests mostly under the shade of trees. If ever they happen to 

 be exposed to the direct rays of the sun, as was a nest which I pur- 

 posely tied to a hedge in my garden, the inmates are seen outside 

 the nest resting on the threads proceeding downwards, the spiders 

 being shaded by the nest. Evidently the heat between 1 1 a. m. and 

 4 p. m. in the interior of the nest must have been unbearable. Even 

 when disturbed and driven within they would not remain inside the 

 nest. 



In winter the walls of the nest are thickened, especially in the 

 upper part, which is exposed to the rainfall. The holes leading to 

 the nest are to be found in the under surface, and those which might 

 catch the wind are carefully closed. In spite of all these precau- 

 tions, these creatures suffer like other animals during this season. 

 They are able to protect themselves completely from neither wind 

 nor rain, nor are they able to procure their food easily. 



The area under my observation is limited to South India. So far 

 as I have seen, and I have visited some of the typical districts — such 

 as South and North Arcot, Salem, Coimbatore, Malabar, Chingle- 

 put, Madura, Trichinopoly and Tanjore — this species is more or less 

 universally distributed throughout these districts. On the top of 

 the Tripati hills, in North Arcot, at an elevation of some five hun- 

 dred feet above the sea, I saw their nests. Considering the facilities 

 these spiders have for safe and speedy dispersal, one need not 

 wonder at their wide distribution. The young ones may sometimes 

 be detected while on their aerial voyages to near or distant places 

 as the winds permit. At other times one solitary spider, more or 

 less in the adult condition, ventures out and settles near the mother 



