78 PECKHAM. [Vol. 1. 



Near to Uloborns is Hyptioides, in which is found the same 

 kind of protective resemblance. Tlie little brown spider, H. 

 cavatus, is so inconspicuous that no ordinary observer ever sees 

 it, and even when his attention is called to it he takes it to be a 

 bit of dirt. Looking closely, we find it to be of a light, yellow- 

 ish gray, with several dark humps and lines ; while the 

 legs and cephalothorax are blackish. It usually crouches, 

 with its legs draw'U in, at the end of a branch, holding the 

 elastic thread which runs to its web, and in this position it is 

 all but indistinguishable. Emerton has noticed that it is col- 

 ored like the ends of the dead pine branches among which it 

 usually lives. * 



In many ways similar to H. cavatus, is H. paradoxus. Of 

 this species Thorell says : "The identity of color between the 

 animal and the dry branches causes it not to be so easily 

 perceived." f 



Among the Epeiridas there is no prettier instance of pro- 

 tective form and habit than Cyrtophora conica, the little spider 

 which we once taught to recognize the sound of the tuning-fork. 

 Its color is gray, broken with irregular lighter and darker 

 lines, and its abdomen, behind, has a rounded projection. This 

 neutral coloring and irregular outline give it the same advan- 

 tage as that possessed by Uloborus and Hyptioides, and like the 

 former genus it strings its cocoons across the web ; but it is pro- 

 tected in a still higher degree by its habit of accumulating a 

 quantity of light rubbish, remains of insects, etc., which it 

 places in a band across the web, binding all together with some 

 loose strands. The cocoons are partly hidden in this mass of 

 debris, and they, as well as the spider itself, standing at the 

 central point, appear to be a part of it. This resemblance is 

 extremely close — so much so that although we visited the 

 little spider before referred to at least once a day for several 

 weeks we were frequently deluded into thinking she was gone, 



*JV(«o England Spiders of Uie Family Ciiiiflutiidae, Trans. Connecticut Acad., 

 Vol. VIII, 1888, p. 46G. 



+ European Spiders, Part I, p . 7u . 



