36 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



M. Si- 

 mon's 

 Studies. 



far as my observations warranted, I could find nothing to justify such con- 

 jecture, and the records examined did not seem sufficiently clear to permit 

 an opposite opinion. 



Since the issue of my work, however, some remarkable and most inter- 

 esting observations have been published by the eminent araneologist, M. 



Eugene Simon, of Paris, 1 

 which have induced me to 

 review the subject. 

 In a paper pre- 

 sented to the En- 

 tomological Soci- 

 ety of France, February, 

 1891, he relates and illus- 

 trates the habits of certain 

 so called sociable spiders 

 representing several families, 

 observed by him during his 

 voyage to Venezuela, South 

 America, during the winter 

 and spring of 1887-'88. This 

 sociability presented several 

 degrees. It was sometimes 

 temporary and limited to 

 the period of reproduction ; 

 sometimes permanent. In 

 some cases the work exe- 

 cuted was absolutely com- 

 mon and alike for all indi- 

 viduals of the community ; 

 in others, the common work 

 did not exclude some por- 

 tion of individual work. 

 With these qualifications he 

 proceeds to classify the so- 

 ciable spiders of Venezuela 

 in three categories. 

 Epeira bandelieri, ordinarily, does not appear to differ in habits from 

 typical Epeiras. Its web is the normal solitary one, but at the time of 

 laying their eggs several females unite and construct in common, upon a 

 bush, a large shell or cocoon case, of a yellow and woolly tissue, in which 

 they proced to lay their eggs and fabricate their cocoons. (Fig. 33.) These 



. 33. 



FIG. 34. 



Fio. 33. Common incubating nest of Epeira bandelieri. 

 Flo. 34. A single cocoon. (After Simon.) 



1 Observations Biologiques sur les Arachnides, Soc. Entomol. de France, 1891. By M. 

 Eugene Simon. 



