Wilder.] 



210 



It is but recently that I have had the benefit of an acquaintance with the in- 

 vestigations of others upon the economy of the geometrical spiders ; and in the 

 entire absence of any American works on this subject, I will refer to the me- 

 moirs of Blackwall and other British naturalists published in the Linngean 

 Transactions, Vols, xvi., xviii,, and xxi., in the Zoological Journal, Vols. iv. and 

 v., in the Transactions of the Entomological Society, Vols, i., ii., and iii.; En- 

 tomological Magazine, Vols. ii. and iii., and Reports of the British Association 

 for 1844 and 1858. The earlier papers are quoted in Kirby and Spence's En- 

 tomology, while a brief synopsis of nearly all is contained in the introduction 

 to Part 1. of Blackwall's Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland, published by the 

 Ray Society in 1861 and 1864. 



Many of these opinions have been confirmed by my observations upon the 

 Nephila plumipes, and where it is otherwise stated, the differences may sometimes 

 (as with the construction of the webs, mentioned above) be in consequence 

 of specific peculiarities. 



Nephila plumipes Koch. 

 The smaller figure, the male ; the larger, the female. 



