92 PECKHAM. [Vol. 1, 



said about a butterfly wbich imitates a slirivelled leaf: "We 

 thus have size, color, form, markings, and habits, all com- 

 bining together to produce a disguise which may be said to be 

 absolutely perfect." * 



PROTECTIVE HABITS. 



Going along with these forms of protective resemblance, 

 we find certain habits which sometimes serve independently to 

 protect the spider, but oftener are supplemental to color and 

 form. Many species hide in crevices or in leaves which they 

 roll up and bind together at the edges. In the Epeiridse some 

 are like thaddeus, which makes a little tent of silk under a leaf 

 near its web. The young thaddeus also makes a tent, but spins 

 its little geometrical web on the under side of the leaf, the 

 edges being bent downward. E. insularis has the more common 

 habit of forming its tent by drawing the edges of two or three 

 leaves together with strands of web ; in this it sits all day, but 

 at night descends and occupies the center of the web during the 

 hours of darkness. I have often found it in this position when 

 hunting nocturnal species by lantern light. It is probable that 

 in tropical countries the monkeys, and perhaps the birds, which 

 devour these large Epeiridse have learned to recognize their 

 webs, which are very large and conspicuous, and to trace them 

 to their hiding places close by ; and thus may have arisen the 

 curious habit noticed by Vinson as possessed by E. nocturna 

 and E. Isabella of destroying the web each morning and rebuild- 

 ing it at night ;t the spider in this way gaining greater security 

 from diurnal enemies. 



Atypus abbotii builds a purse-shaped tube which is found 

 attached to the bark of trees, and which has the external sur- 

 face dark and covered with sand. J The trap-doors which close 

 the nest of some of the Territelarife are wonderful examples of 



* Sfatural Selection, p. 61. 



+ Loo. cU., p. CXIII. 



I For a complete account of this species see Nesting Habits of the American 

 Purseweh Spider, by Eev. Henry 0. McCook, Proc. Acad. Nat. Science of Philadeldphia, 

 1888, p. 203. 



