COLOR AND THE COLOR SENSE. :M.~> 



some other groups. Their habit keeps them during much of their life 

 concealed within earth burrows, or little caves excavated and fitted up 

 by them under stones, logs, and like surroundings. They move over the 

 ground or water, where they stalk their prey, and are not as apt to be 

 found in arboreal situations among flowers, blossoms, and leaves, as other 

 tribes of the Wanderers, the Saltigrades and Laterigrades. 



There is one well known species of Laterigrade spider, Misumena vatia, 



whose habits have awakened in my mind the query whether it might not 



be influenced by a decided color sense in the selection of certain 



sites. Most araneologists have observed this species stationed 

 na vatia. 



upon yellow flowers, as the golden rod and the brown daisy 



which is popularly known in our section as "black eyed Susan." Misu- 

 mena lurks upon this flower with its legs spread out within the very 

 centre, and so closely corresponding in color to its floral site that one must 

 look closely ere he discovers it. The yellow centre of the common ox eyed 

 daisy is also a lurking place for this spider. I have found the same spe- 

 cies nestled within the petals of a half opened tea rose, and then its color 

 also corresponded with its environment, being white, with various delicate 

 shades of green and pink. (Plate III., Fig. 2.) In these cases we are 

 forced at least to face the question, was the spider moved in such selec- 

 tion by the color of the flower? If we say yes, then we are also con- 

 strained to the conclusion that, in some way, the aranead must have been 

 conscious of the fact that its peculiar color harmonized with the color of 

 the flower which it sought as a stalking point for the capture of its prey. 



It is doubtless true for the most part that light is perceived by spiders, 

 and arthropods generally, by the eyes, and not chiefly by the skin. Sir 

 John Lubbock has shown, by a series of ingenious experiments, that ants 

 perceive the ultra violet rays with their eyes, and not, as suggested by 

 Graber, by the skin generally. These experiments have been repeated and 

 the conclusions verified by an observer so careful and experienced as Dr. 

 Auguste Forel. 1 Nevertheless, it seems to me probable that there is some, 

 and it may be considerable, perception of light by the skin of spiders. 



The abdomen of spiders is included within a soft integument which is 

 frequently covered heavily with hairs. May it not be that this soft skin 

 is "far more sensitive than the hard chitinous enclosure of the abdomen of 

 insects? May it not, therefore, be that such a spider as Misumena vatia 

 is led to settle within those flowers which correspond in color to itself, by 

 that comfortable feeling which results from the harmony of an individual 

 with its environment, and which may be caused, for all we know, by the 

 fact that the yellow rays of the flower are perceived by and agreeable to 

 the sensitive skin of the spider? In thinking of the power of spiders to 

 distinguish the various hues, may we not be justified in calling into play 



1 Lubbock on the Senses of Animals, page 211. 



