DEATH AND ITS DISGUISES. 



421 



of what one may everywhere see of other species during autumn days, 

 and, indeed, at other seasons also, for the limit of life with some species 

 is reached before the fall. 



I. 



I have heretofore remarked that the most natural death of the spider 

 is, perhaps, a violent one. To feed the hungry maw of a stronger, more 

 skillful, or more fortunate fellow aranead ; to be paralyzed and 

 The Fash- entombed within a clay sarcophagus by a mother wasp and serve 

 -P. ,, as food for a growing waspling worm; to be snapped up as a 

 delicate tidbit by birds, toads, and all the other creatures that 

 prey upon her these are some of the modes by which, in the appoint- 

 ments of Nature, the spider meets that doom which must befall all the 

 living. And a painless doom it doubtless is, even thus. 



But there are some that end their life by what we commonly call a 

 natural death ; that is to say, they do not perish through violence, but 

 cease to live because of the natural exhaustion of vital forces. It is one 

 of the most difficult matters, among the many difficult ones in the study 

 of spider life, to find an unin- 

 terrupted opportunity for consec- 

 utive observations of a spider 

 while undergoing this fashion of 

 death. But I have been fortu- 

 nate enough to create opportu- 

 nities which have afforded me 

 satisfactory results. Most of the 

 examples studied were females of 

 Argiope cophinaria, which I had 

 colonized upon the vines in my 

 manse yard. One of these, called 

 for convenience Prima, had oc- 

 cupied a position upon a honey- 

 suckle vine for several weeks, 

 and highly enjoyed herself cap- 

 turing and devouring numerous 

 flies attracted to the spot from 

 a neighboring stable. The first 

 stage of mortality was simply a condition of inactivity. 



In my daily rounds among my pets, I noticed nothing peculiar in Prima 

 except that she seemed to be hanging inactive behind her central shield of 

 white silk. But as this is not an unusual circumstance, it attracted no spe- 

 cial attention until September 24th, when I found her hanging in a position 

 that at once indicated disaster. I touched her and tried her sensibilities 

 in various ways; but she was dead. She had, indeed, evidently died 



FIG. 359. The death fashion of Argiope. Position of 

 Prima just after death. 



