September, 1920] 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



107 



author's types and those described by Banks and 

 Peckham. At Toronto there is a small collection 

 with a large proportion of west coast species. The 

 museum at Banff contains large numbers of the 

 spiders living in the neighboring mountains. 



The spiders of Canada fall naturally into several 

 faunal groups. The house spiders with which we 

 are most familiar are most of them introduced from 

 Europe or from more southern parts of this contin- 

 ent. The common Tegenaria derhami of cellars 

 and barns is a European species. The common 

 round web spider of barns and bridges, Epeira 

 sericata is also European, and is never found far 

 from buildings. The still more common spider 

 in houses of all kinds, Theridion lepidariorum, is 

 found in caves and under cliffs farther south, but 

 its original home is unknown. The same is true 

 of the large gray Epeira cavatica found in barns 

 and sheds through southern Ontario, Maine, and 

 New Brunswick. The European Epeira diadernata, 

 a spider of gardens and the outside of houses, has 

 been found at St. Johns, Newfoundland, and at 

 Quebec. 



The most distinct faunal group in Canada is the 

 so-called Canadian fauna which occupies the part 

 of Canada originally covered by forest consisting 

 mostly of spruce. This comes to the coast in Maine 

 and New Brunswick, and its southern border ex- 

 tends westward across Maine and Ontario north 

 of the Great Lakes and the prairies to the Rocky 

 Mountains. Several spiders have their southern 

 limits along this border, as the author has shown 

 in the report of the Entomological Society of Ontario 

 for 1917. Theridion zelolypum is the most con- 

 spicuous of these, making large coarse webs be- 

 tween the spruce branches, with nests m which the 

 female and her brood of young live together 

 through the summer. Lin})phia limiianea follows 

 much the same range but a little farther north from 

 Newfoundland to Manitoba, and has not been 

 found beyond the Canadian boundary except in 

 northern Maine. Zilla montana is another Cana- 

 dian species that extends across the continent and 

 south on mountain-tops to North Carolina. It lives 

 in trees and on rocks, and settles readily on houses 

 surrounded by forest. It lives also in Europe in 

 the Alps. Linyphia nearclica, another species of 

 this group, seems to be very sensitive to its sur- 

 roundings. It is found usually on spruce trees near 

 bogs from Labrador to the Rocky Mountains, and 

 extends south in the upper forest of the mountains 

 of New England and New York from an altitude 

 of 2,500 feet up to the limit of trees. All these 

 spiders live in trees well above the ground, but 

 other species that live in moss close to the ground 

 have similar distribution. One of these is Theri- 



dion sexpunclatum, a pale spider with gray and 

 white spots, and another, Pedanasteihus fusca, a 

 darker gray species resembling P. riparius of farther 

 scuth. All the spiders of the Canadian fauna do 

 not have this restricted range but extend much 

 farther north and south. The species of Pardosa 

 which live in open ground in bogs, along river banks 

 and on mountain-tops, extend northward, some of 

 them as far as animals of any kind have been found 

 and also extend southward in bogs to the New 

 England coast. New York and Ohio and on 

 mountain-tops to Colorado. Some of the widely 

 distributed Canadian species extend eastward by 

 way of Greenland and Iceland, into Europe, or 

 westward through Alaska into Siberia. 



South of the spruce forest area, the country is 

 occupied mainly by a fauna known as "transition" 

 cr "Alleghanian," containing many species of very 

 wide distribution and closely related to the fauna 

 cf northern Europe. Through southern Ontario, 

 Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the common spiders 

 belong to this group. One of the most common 

 and conspicuous by its cobwebs is A galena naevia, 

 which makes its large flat webs in grass fields, 

 among low bushes, in dead trees and brush, and 

 even in windows and doorways. These spiders lay 

 their eggs late in the summer in flat cocoons partly 

 covered with leaves and dirt, and adults all die 

 before winter. The young hatch and sometimes 

 leave the cocoon before cold weather, but for the 

 most part wait until the next spring. The large 

 Epeira marmorea and Epeira trifolium are con- 

 spicuous species, and also mature in the late sum- 

 mer and die before winter. In August and 

 September their large round webs hang in large 

 numbers in berry bushes and golden-rod, the 

 brightly colored spiders hidden nearby in a nest 

 of leaves fastened together and lined with silk. 

 Epeira patagiata is another common spider of this 

 fauna and extends far north into the Canadian 

 area. It is colored in grays and browns like bark 

 and wood. It makes its cobwebs after dark and 

 leaves them at daylight, hiding in some sheltered 

 place often several feet away. It establishes itself 

 readily in barns and on the outside of houses, 

 porches and fences, both in America and in 

 Europe. The large white flower spider. Misumena 

 vatia, lives among flowers all the way across Can- 

 ada, eating flies and other insects that come to rest 

 and feed on the flowers. Into this part of the 

 fauna come many species of jumping spiders, 

 Attidae, Dendryphantes mililaris and Dendr})- 

 phantes flavipcdcs live in great numbers on small 

 trees and bushes, making no cobwebs but moving 

 about constantly among the leaves, creeping close 

 to resting insects and jumping upon them. They 



