TOILET AND HOUSEKEEPING HABITS. aly 
The drawing Fig. 5 shows Argiope cophinaria as seen in this phase of 
making the toilet. The sides of the abdomen are cleansed by brushing 
them with the sides of the third pair of legs, which are pressed against the 
body and pushed downward, as one would stroke a cat’s hair with his 
hand. The cleansing of the dorsal part of the abdomen is effected by 
throwing a hind leg over the top thereof and moving it downward towards 
the spinners, keeping it meanwhile pressed against the skin. The spines 
and bristles on the legs thus act as a comb or brush. 
I have often had opportunity to note like habits of personal cleanli- 
ness in our American Mygalide. My longlived tarantula “ Leidy” was 
remarkably tidy. Always after digging 
in its burrow it was quite sure to cleanse 
its person, and, by reason of its size, 
the use of its palps in wiping off the fore part 
of its body presented an amusing likeness to the 
familiar action of pussy when washing her face 
with her paws. The fore legs were cleansed by 
placing them against the palps and rubbing the 
two together. The toilet was also accomplished 
by overlapping one leg with the other, the second 
leg over the third, for example, and then rubbing 
the two as if a man were to scratch his legs by 
drawing the inner surface of one along the front 
surface of the other. The first leg was thus rub- 
bed against the second, of course being pressed 
down upon it meanwhile. The palp was thrown 
back to the first leg, which it brushed off in the 
same manner. 
It is interesting, and suggestive ‘of the substan- 
tial unity in the primary functions of life which. 1.5 Re fea Gaps iti 
”  prevades living things, to note this com- — ermost foot by drawing it 
Compar- munity of habit and method between  ‘7™0ush the fangs. 
ed with P 
tata. a vertebrate and an arachnid. The same may be remarked of 
the ants, whose toilet habits I have carefully observed and de- 
scribed in my “ Agricultural Ant of Texas.”! The methods of cleaning their 
persons practiced by ants and spiders are quite similar; more so, indeed, 
than one would suppose, considering the remarkable differance in the gen- 
eral life economy of the two creatures. It is not a particularly striking fact, 
but rather what one would expect, that a spider should hang herself up by 
a hind foot to comb, brush, and wash herself. But it strikes one as some- 
what out of the ordinary that an ant should resort to the same turnyerein 
process, yet it does so, as.I have shown in the case of the Agricultural 
Tarantu- 
la’s Toilet 
1 Chapter VIII. on Toilet, Sleeping, and Funeral Habits. 
