42 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



wliicli hud been woven by the brood in their babyhood assemblage. Snares 

 of the Labyrinth spider are often seen thus closely placed, and in point 



of fact the same may be said of almost all Orbweavers under 

 Orbweav- f avorm g conditions. I have described an assemblage of Zillas 

 i*? g . , whose snares were as closely placed as those of Uloborus repub- 

 borhoods li canus > the foundation lines thereof being supported by the iron 



railing and columns upon the footway at the sluice where the 

 waters of Loch Katrine pass down into Loch Achray, in the Trossachs 

 Glen of Scotland. So also with the snares of our most common indig- 

 enous Epeiras, which one may see at times so closely placed along the 



surface of a stable wall or other favoring site that the founda- 



tion lines thereof are iuterblended, on the one side and the other, 

 ... giving to the casual glance the appearance of a widely distrib- 



uted colony. Yet, in point of fact, all these are simply examples 

 of the contiguous placing of snares by individuals known to have no 

 particle of social habit, and which are as absolutely distinct as though 

 miles apart. I am constrained to believe that there is no more evi- 

 dence of a really social community, analogous to that established among 

 ants, wasps, and other social Hymenoptera, in the assemblages of U. re- 

 publicanus described by M. Simon, than in the examples which I have 

 thus cited. 



The assembling of the two sexes upon the outlying threads surrounding 

 the orbicular snares has something more the appearance of friendliness. 

 It would seem, indeed, 'that here we have an evidence that individuals are 

 drawn together by some social tendency. Yet even in this fact one can 

 see nothing absolutely conclusive of a really social habit ; for it must be 

 remembered that M. Simon notes that most of these individuals, thus found 

 congregated upon the netted suburbs of the true snares, were males, a fact 

 which is quite in accordance with the habits of that sex. I have elsewhere 

 shown (Vol. II., page 21), that as many as three or four males have been 

 observed by me hanging upon the outer precincts of the orb of an Argiopc 

 or of Epeira labyrinthea. I am inclined to think that the examples de- 

 scribed by Simon may be thus explained ; for although males of Orb- 

 weavers are disposed to quarrel with each other at times, they do also 

 exhibit a remarkable degree of good temper, or at least absence of pug- 

 nacity, when thus waiting at the gates of their lady's bower. In view of 

 all these observations, which appear to carry the habits of araneads nearer 

 to those of social insects than any yet published, I am compelled to say 

 that further facts are required before we can pronounce the author's con- 

 clusions to be well established. It is much to be hoped that M. Simon 

 may have the opportunity to reexamine the facts which he has communi- 

 cated, and thus add the unquestionable solution of this most interesting 

 problem to the brilliant service which he has rendered in that branch of 

 natural science of which he has made himself a master. 



