300 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



seemed, because the smell was pleasant to them, the observers could not 

 determine. 1 



As to the olfactory organs, the experiments would indicate that they are 



distributed more or less over the entire surface of the body, especially at 



the tips of the feet and at the apex of the abdomen, but that 



Dlfactory ^j iev p ro bably are more highly developed in the fore part of the 



^ a ". s ' body and in the organs immediately surrounding the face. In 

 order to test the value of the palps as olfactory organs, those 

 parts were dissected from two females of Argiope cophinaria. The result- 

 ing tests indicated that the araneads had suffered no apparent loss of sen- 

 sitiveness. In one case the application of the oil of lavender at the front 

 of the body caused the spider instantly to contract her legs and rub the 

 tips thereof, one at a time, upon the falces. The other spiders responded 

 to heliotrope and Chinese bouquet by quickly jerking the abdomen and 

 rubbing the tips of the legs over the falces. 



VII. 



A number of experiments, prolonged through several years, have been 



made with a view to determine the extent to which spiders hear, and the 



location of the auditory organs. I have found myself continually 



36 thwarted, or at least confused, by doubts lest the various re- 

 sponses made were caused by independent movements of the air, 

 which, operating on the delicate body armature, of course produced sensa- 

 tion and excitement. I made many experiments upon the tarantula " Lei- 

 dy," which I had in my. keeping for more than five years, and whose life 

 I have elsewhere recorded.' 2 These experiments were made with tuning 

 forks, with several kinds of musical instruments, and by sounds of all de- 

 grees of sharpness and dullness made by the human voice and various 

 sonorous objects. 



Once I had nearly concluded that the great creature was immensely 

 excited by my flute. Certain tones, when the instrument was brought close 

 to the vessel in which the tarantula was confined, caused her at once to 

 rear upon her hind legs in that rampant attitude which this creature as- 

 sumes when about to strike its prey. During one experiment, however, 

 something occurred which induced me to drop my flute and make a light 

 puff of air with my mouth over the edge of the glass cage, so that the 

 wind thus produced would be reflected against the animal. At once she 

 assumed the rampant position precisely as before. Repeating this, I found 

 that it was simply the motion of the air over the mouth hole of the flute, 

 which was carried into the cage,' that had agitated the tarantula. In other 



1 Mental Powers of Spiders. 



- Proceedings Acad. Nat, Sei., Phila., 1HS7, |IUL:C 'M'->, CM- "Prolonged Life in Inver- 

 1 el i rates: Notes on the Age and Habits of the Anieriean Tarantula." 



