20 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
in species as the Hpeiroids; in brilliancy and yariety of colors they sur- 
pass both these and other families of spiders, and may even be compared 
with the showy families of Coleoptera. 1 
Great as is the weight which this justly distinguished arachnologist car- 
ries toward the Attoids, I am inclined, in consideration of both instincts 
_ and structure, to place the Lycosids at the head of the order. 
Superior- The organization of this family is, to say the least, but little 
ity of 5 : i 2 , M ree 
Tageeeniaiel inferior, if at all, to that of the Attoids; and in their spimning 
habits I have no hesitation in pronouncing them to be superior. 
Indeed, the Saltigrades are by no means remarkable for their spinning- 
work, in this respect scarcely equaling the 
Tubeweavers, perhaps the lowest of the 
spiders. The Citigrades, however, exhibit 
most interesting industries; and especially 
in the personal care of their young, from 
the egg coéoon to the period when the 
spiderlings can shift for themselves, the 
Lycosids seem to me to show a higher 
order of instinct than the Attoids, certainly 
one as high. The whole subject, however, 
is one which in- 
cludes difficulties 
too numerous and 
serious to allow a 
full discussion in yy6,7, Lineweaving Spider, Therid- 
these pages. ium tepidariorum. (Marx, del.) 
The Orbweavers haye their nearest rela- 
tions in the Lineweavers, whose snares of 
netted lines are familiar in the 
Orbweav-angles of our houses, forming 
liars largely the domestic “ cobwebs.” 
weavers. 1m most cases the two tribes can 
be distinguished by a practiced 
eye by the general form. But they can 
Fic. 6. Citigrade Spider, Lycosa scutulata most easily be separated thus: The Epei- 
sums ur encase aby roids have a low forehead, not transversely 
impressed ; from the margin of the clypeus to the middle front pair of 
eyes the distance is less, or at any rate not greater than the distance be- 
tween the middle front and middle rear eyes. In the Retitelaria, on the 
contrary, the distance from the margin of the clypeus to the middle front 
eyes is greater than that from the middle front to the middle rear eyes.? 
1 Buropean Spiders, page 40. 
2 There are exceptions in the case of some Epeiroid males with strongly projecting fore- 
head, and in the genus Tapinopa, among the Retitelariv. 
