* 

 254 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



mouth with a door fitting accurately into a beveled lip. In the manufac- 

 ture of these doors fragments of moss, the only material at the spiderling's 

 disposal, were used in place of earth. 1 



The behavior of two of the brood of Epeira sclopetaria referred to (Vol. 



I., page 150), was notable as showing in its plenitude the presence of the 



strongest instincts immediately after egress. A small insect, while 



ouns hovering around the lamp, was snared in the straggling lines. A 



spiderling near by instantly ran to it, threw out from its wee 



spinnerets jets of filaments, and completely enswathed the creature precisely 



in the manner of an adult. 



Another of the brood began in a few minutes after its coming to make 

 an orbweb. The foundations were attached to the end of one of the lines 

 hanging to the lamp globe by dropping a thread to the table, a distance of 

 eighteen inches ; then a triangular frame was formed by uniting a point 

 of this thread to the' opposite end of the upper line; within this frame a 

 perfect orb was spun. (See Fig. 141, page 151, Vol. I.) I 

 observed the whole process, laying in the radii, spinning the 

 notched zone, the foundation spirals, the beaded spirals; all was 

 complete, and an exact likeness of a perfect adult web. Neither 

 of these young spiders could have been more than half an 

 hour out of the natal tent; nor had they any previous ex- 

 perience, having been excluded from all spinningwork what- 

 soever ; nor had they taken food of any sort. There was no 

 ing in a foot cannibalism within cocoon or tent before the egress of the 

 brood, as not a single dead individual remained ; every egg 

 had hatched a perfect spider, and all the brood were gone, except three 

 living ones, who remained within the tent until the next day. Nothing 

 could more fully demonstrate the facts that the perfect exercise 

 Charac- o f ^j 10 f unc ti n of spinning, and the full possession of the char- 

 acteristic habit of capturing prey, are innate with the spider- 

 Innate nn S> an< l dependent upon and influenced by nothing external 

 whatsoever. These facts, indeed, I have often demonstrated in 

 the various families and species by experiments quite as conclusive as the 

 above. 



A curious deviation from the harmony which prevailed throughout this 

 Kpt'ira brood was shown by the spider which made the above mentioned 

 web and another who chanced to straggle upon it. The intruder passed 

 along a radius toward the hub where the Orbweaver hung awaiting prey. 

 The latter immediately turned and sei/ed the radius with her feet, her 

 little frame meanwhile showing in every part the vigor and expectancy of 

 her kind when a victim strikes the web. 



A series of pulls and counter pulls ensued; then the two araneads ap- 



1 M. H. Lucas, Bull, ties Seating ile la Sue. Kntoin. do France, No. -7, pai:e 1(17, 1874. 



