330 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



in Wyandotte Cave is pale pinkish, horn brown on the thorax and legs, 

 while the abdomen is dull honey yellow. 1 



Two specimens of Linyphia weyerii in my possession, collected by Dr. 

 Joseph Leidy in Luray Cavern, Virginia, are of a light honey yellow, the 

 abdomen of one individual being darkish brown. As this is a common 

 color for spiders of all conditions, after they have been in alcohol a little 

 while, I am not able to say what may have been the original color of 

 these, particularly as they are not adult. 



In the case of Lycosa arenicola, whose habits were studied by me on 

 Coffin's Beach, near Annisquam, Massachusetts, the undue presence of sun- 

 light and heat appears to have produced precisely the same 

 Bleached regults ag the absence of sunlight in Mammoth Cave. The 

 Lirht U1 eastern shore of the bay opposite Annisquam consists in part 

 of a stretch of sand hills known as Coffin's Beach. The sand is 

 a bright white color, and is massed at places into elevations of consider- 

 able height. The fragrant Bay bush grows in clumps along the edges 

 and summits of these irregular sand hills, and this is intermingled with 

 patches of tough grass, among which are numerous burrows of the Turret 

 spider. These Lycosids are domiciled in the sand, and spread very gen- 

 erally over the dunes. The burrows are dug straight downward, penetrat- 

 ing the upper layer of loose sand, and striking the more compact and 

 moist strata below the surface. The spiders captured were of a light hue, 



as compared with the same specimens found 

 in meadows, fields, and like environment in 

 the interior. Specimens almost identical with 

 these in color were found by Dr. Joseph 

 Leidy, and subsequently by myself, in the 

 sand at Beach Haven, New Jersey. This 

 pale coloring appears in all other littoral 

 specimens examined. The influence of envi- 

 ronment, as manifest in these spiders, was also 

 seen in a grasshopper or locust which is 

 quite abundant on Coffin's Beach, and is al- 

 most as white as the sand over which it was found hopping. 2 



It is certainly confusing to one who studies the influence of light upon 

 aranead coloration to find such contradictory facts as these, viz., that the 

 absence of light results in albinism in the spider fauna of cav- 

 Contra- emS; w hile the excessive sunlight which beats upon and is re- 

 - 1 fleeted by the white sea sand produces the same condition. Evi- 

 dently something more than the direct influence of sunlight must 

 contribute to these results. 



FIG. 308. Lycosa arenicola. (A dark 

 specimen.) 



1 Invertebrate Cave Fquua of Kentucky, Am. Nat, Vol. IX., page 276. 



2 McCook : The Turret Spider on Coffin's Beach, Proe. A cad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1888, 

 page 333. 



