— "= oe 
OR A Pin. xX. 
THE FEATHERFOOT SPIDER, ULOBORUS PLUMIPES. 
Me 
Tue remarkable genus Uloborus is represented by at least two species in 
the United States, namely, Uloborus mammeatus Hentz, and Uloborus 
plumipes Lucas (Phillyra riparia Hentz). These spiders closely 
Uloborus yesemble each other in structure and, as far as I know, have no 
Distribu- ,. ; ; = F F A P ; 
ae difference in habit. The genus, in both its species, is widely 
distributed over the United States, probably covering the entire 
area. I have traced its distribution from New England, in the States of 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, southward to New Jersey, 
through the District of Columbia, to Florida. Moving westward, along the 
Gulf States, it was found by Hentz in Alabama, and by myself in Texas. 
Specimens have been sent me from Wisconsin, where the Peckhams haye 
observed it, and I have collected it at various points in Eastern and Cen- 
tral Pennsylvania. This record of distribution would indicate that the 
spider probably occupies the whole area of the United States, with the 
possible exception of the Pacific coast; and I have no doubt that it will 
be found there also. Plumipes is found in Europe, as are other species of 
the genus. Uloborus is not of modern origin, as the family, at least, is 
represented among the fossil spiders of the amber. 
My studies of Featherfoot’s local habitat show some decided prefer- 
ences for moist, low, and well shaded sites, but indicate a quite miscella- 
neous taste. In Connecticut I found its snares in the decayed 
Plume- hollows of old stumps or cavities beneath their roots, and spun 
foot’s a 
Orb Sites. Bea" the ground upon the low underbrush of thickets. One very 
large colony of young spiders was found on laurel bushes at the 
foot of Brush Mountain, Pennsylvania, above one of the branches of the 
Juniata River. Their snares were swung at the height of four feet and 
less above the surface. In the neighborhood of Philadelphia I have found 
them quite low down, swung between the stalks of a blackberry thicket, 
and once only within a shallow cavity among the stones of an abandoned 
mill dam. I have always happened to observe them in moist places near 
running streams. In Texas I found Uloborus, probably Mammeatus, in 
bushes on the uplands south of Austin, above the deep gorge of Barton 
Creek. 
(172) 
