MIMICRY IN SPIDKKS. 377 



building in dead brandies, where its wood brown or grayisli color resem- 

 bles small pieces of bark or bits of rubbish entangled in deserted webs. 

 They also perceive a case of cocoon mimicry in her habit of so disposing 

 her grayish cocoons along the web as to look like a mass of rubbish. The 

 protective resemblance in this species, therefore, is twofold : that of the 

 spider to particles of dead wood entangled in its snare, and to the dry 

 branches among which the snare is spun ; and again, that of the spider 

 to her cocoon. When Uloborus is found, however, as I often have found 

 it, in the midst of green laurel bushes or other verdant environment, the 

 fact of a protective resemblance disappears. If we concede the cause of 

 mimicry as urged by the Peckhams, we must go still further, it seems to 

 me, and suppose that the spider is endowed with a power, in one locality, 

 which forsakes her in another, and it may be a nearby one. 



Theridium serpentinum l (Fig. 108, page 112), with her glossy brown 

 colors, can scarcely be considered as bearing a striking resemblance to the 

 snow white cocoons which she hangs within her snare; and Epeira laby- 

 rinthea (Fig. 85, page 100) can by no stress of imagination be reckoned 

 as bearing a resemblance to her cocoons. 







1 This species Dr. Marx catalogues as a synonym of Teutana triangulosa Walck. "Cata- 

 logue of the Described Araneee of Temperate North America," Proceed. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1890, 

 No. 782, page 521. 



