36 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
far as my observations warranted, I could find nothing to justify such con- 
jecture, and the records examined did not seem sufficiently clear to permit 
an opposite opinion. 
Since the issue of my work, however, some remarkable and most inter- 
esting observations have been published by the eminent araneologist, M. 
Eugene Simon, of Paris,1 
which have induced me to 
review the subject. 
PN M.Si- In a paper pre- 
. ae sented to the En- 
NN Studies. 
tomological Soci- 
ety of France, February, 
1891, he relates and illus- 
trates the habits of certain 
so called sociable spiders 
representing several families, 
observed by him during his 
voyage to Venezuela, South 
America, during the winter 
and spring of 1887-’88. ‘This 
sociability presented several 
degrees. It was sometimes 
temporary and limited to 
the period of reproduction ; 
sometimes permanent. In 
some cases the work exe- 
cuted was absolutely com- 
mon and alike for all indi- 
viduals of the community ; 
in others, the common work 
did not exclude some por- 
tion of individual work. 
With these qualifications he 
proceeds to classify the so- 
Fu, Common josbeting nen of Epes atstie. _giable-gpiders) off "Weneausle 
in three categories. 
Epeira bandelieri, ordinarily, does not appear to differ in habits from 
typical Epeiras. Its web is the normal solitary one, but at the time of 
laying their eggs several females unite and construct in common, upon a 
bush, a large shell or cocoon case, of a yellow and woolly tissue, in which 
they proced to lay their eggs and fabricate their cocoons. (Fig. 33.) These 
aie 
ALE. 
t fee 
ai 
ge 
1 Observations Biologiques sur les Arachnides, Soc. Entomol. de France, 1891. By M. 
Eugene Simon. 
