BLACK WIDOW SPIDER — D'AMOUR ET AL. 409 



comb is used for flinging silk, in an almost liquid state, over the en- 

 tangled prey. It is interesting to see the technique employed in 

 subduing one of the larger grasshoppers, an animal considerably 

 bigger and many times stronger than the spider. What she does is to 

 hog-tie the powerful jumping legs of the victim and after submission is 

 gained in this way she takes her time about administering the fatal bite. 



HIBERNATION 



In the vicinity of Denver we have been able to collect specimens 

 in every month of the year. The degree of activity shown by spiders 

 collected in the winter months appears to depend on the temperature ; 

 if it is warm, individuals captured behave about as they do in summer; 

 if it is cold, they are more or less torpid. They have been found in 

 winter in all the common places, and we have never observed the 

 slightest evidence of special preparation against the cold — nothing in 

 the way of additional web or better protection for the nest. Many 

 of those found under rocks and in trash heaps appear to have made 

 no webs of any kind. In December last year, after a heavy snow 

 with cold nights, we picked up a specimen from the bottom of a pile 

 of tumbleweeds, about as wet and cold a spot as one could imagine. 

 Later, in an unheated room, where half a dozen recently collected 

 spiders were exposed to a temperature of 10° below zero in a sudden 

 cold snap, all were frozen. 



METHODS OF COLLECTING 



Latrodedus is ready both by day and by night for any passing 

 victim and at night is easily spotted with a flashlight. An easy method 

 of collecting from holes in banks and similar places is to tie a beetle 

 to a string 18 inches or so long with the other end of the string attached 

 to a stick of handy size. When the beetle is dropped into a web, if 

 the spider is hungry, she will at once rush out to capture the struggling 

 insect. Web and spider may then be struck down and the spider 

 transferred by means of forceps to the collecting bottle. Sometimes 

 one may pull out web and egg sacs so that they dangle just outside 

 the hole. After some time the female may frequently be caught out- 

 side in the act of rescuing her eggs and repairing the damage to the 

 web. During the capture of the widow she almost always exhibits 

 the cataleptic reflex, "playing possum," a protective habit that is 

 common to almost all kinds of spiders, and when picked up by a leg 

 with the forceps she is likely to cast the leg, another protective device 

 that is familiar to spider observers everywhere. 



