<;I:M:RAL CLASSIFICATION AND STRUCTURE. 



19 



Highest 

 Forms. 



FIG. 4. Saltigrade 

 Spider, Epible- 

 mtun scenicuru 

 Clerck. 



Thorell's 

 Views. 



II. 



The propriety of beginning the series of spiders with the Orbweavers has 

 been generally recognized by authors. Perhaps some have had no better 

 reason than that which popularly associates this group with the 

 name spider; but others have thought that the highest forms 

 in the order Aranese are really included within the Orbitelarise. 

 The suggestion of Thorell can hardly be allowed that the more artistic- 

 construction of web shows higher development of instincts 

 in Epeiroids than in other families of the order. Surely the 

 nests of some Lineweavers, as Theridimn riparium and Liny- 

 phia marginata ; of such Citigrades as our Turret spider, 

 Lycosa arenicola Scudder; and such Tunnelweavers as our 

 California trap door spider, Cteniza californica Cambridge, 

 show a grade of instinct quite as high as that of the Orb- 

 weavers, and which, moreover, as it seems to me, exhibits a 

 wider range of voluntary action and variation than the more 

 mechanical spinning of a geometric web. With greater justice Thorell, 

 when speaking to the point of structure alone, disallows the 

 claims of the Orbweavers to the highest position in their order. 

 If we consider (he says) as we reasonably ought to do, more 

 the harmonious development of the body's various parts, the superior de- 

 velopment of the organs of sense, and such like, we see that the Epei'roidse, 

 with their weak cephalothorax and heavy abdomen, 

 their slow and clumsy motions, and their compara- 

 tively small eyes, are surpassed by more than one of 

 the other families usually looked upon as lower. The 

 LycosoidaB are distinguished by their well proportioned 

 forms, their powerfully developed cephalothorax, by 

 the quickness and force of their movements, and 

 highly developed organs of sight. 



The Attoidse also, as may be easily remarked by 

 a casual observer in the little striped, jumping spider 

 j (Epiblemum scenicum) familiar around all 



, . , our rural and suburban homes, have a strik- 

 Attoidae. . ' 



ing expression of intelligence. This may be 

 an optical effect solely due to the peculiar eyes and 

 nervous jerking action of the animal, but certainly 

 FIG. a. Tubeweaving Spider, one j s s t ron gly reminded thereby of the "expression" 



Gnaphosa vanegata Hentz. e 



(Marx, del.) Much magni- of the Hymenoptera, as ants and wasps, the most 



highly developed of the order of insects. 



As regards the other reasons adduced to support the preeminence of 

 the Epe'iroids above all other spiders, such as the number and beauty of 

 the species, the small number of transition forms, etc., they hold equally 

 true of the Attoids. These form a unit quite as close, compact, and rich 



