58 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



Several times I have heard accounts of spiders as fishermen, but not 

 until this summer did I have the opportunity of verifying them. On 

 the afternoon of October 12, in Marsh Run, about 9 miles west of 

 Orange, Va., while sorting fish from leaves, some specimens were 

 overlooked and tossed back into the creek along with the leaves. The 

 minnows were alive, but sick, a few floating near the surface in normal 

 position while they were recovering. A little later I saw a spider, 

 subsequently identified by Dr. E. A. Chapin, Curator of Insects, 



A B 



Fig. 57. — A. the underside of the head showing the mouth of the cyprinid 

 Parexoglossum laurae Hubbs ; B, the mouth of Exoglossitm maxillingua (Le 

 Sueur). Both reproduced by permission of Dr. Carl L. Hubbs. 



U. S. National Museum, as Dolomcdcs taiebrosus Hentz, a few inches 

 above the water line, with a minnow about 3 inches long, no doubt 

 one of the sick fish released by us, held in its chelicerae. Upon my 

 attempt to capture the spider and the fish, the former carried its 

 victim a foot and a half up the vertical bank at which point both were 

 forced into a collecting can. The minnow was held by the mid-dorsal 

 region of its back, its head extended in front, and its tail backward, 

 between the legs of its captor. The spider measured 3! inches from 

 tip of one leg to the tip of the opposite one. 



