3 
310 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
VW. 
The subject of nesting architecture could hardly be considered com- 
plete without a glance at the curious habit of nest parasitism, as it may 
(somewhat loosely) be termed. The facts in my possession are 
not numerous, but are enough to indicate that more, and more 
interesting ones, may await future observers. Saltigrade spiders 
are very much in the habit of attaching the silken cell in which they live 
to the nest of Orbweavers, and, indeed, I may say, of other tribes, One 
may find a little Saltigrade snugly ensconced, as in Fig. 288, on the silken 
dome of Epeira, with the mouth of the cell opening almost next door to 
the exit of her host's house. It seems strange, at first thought, that the 
two would pass to and fro without molesting and destroying one another ; 
but they manage to do this. 
Again, I have often found underneath'a bit of loose bark, or a flat 
stone, the tubular nest of Epeira strix, surrounded on all sides and even 
overlaid by the cells of various Saltigrade species, 
in some of which the mother would be found 
dwelling with her young. Here, again, the wonder 
is that the colonists dwelt together in unity. 
It is not an unusual thing to find the little 
j silken cell of Clubiona and various Drassids spun 
Fic. 288, Parasitic nest of Sat Underneath some portion of curled leaf or leaves, 
dire ed upon nest of which are used by the Insular or Shamrock spiders 
for nests. Indeed, these ubiquitous Tubeweavers 
feel free to attach their cells to any object, in almost any site, 
mal without the slightest regard to the equity of squatter sovereignty. 
antares Observations of this kind are so frequent that I have fancied that 
during the hours of rest within the domicile the predatory nature 
of araneads may be in abeyance, and that there may be a mutual under- 
standing—a sort of modus vivendi—that in such cases the ordinary canni- 
balism of their kind is to be suspended, 
Vinson gives an interesting account of the manner in which the little 
Linyphiz of the African islands whose fauna he has described, take up 
their dwellings upon the huge snares and extended foundation lines of 
large Orbweayers, mostly of the genus Nephila. Here they remain quite 
at home, and apparently undisturbed by their gigantic hostess, and sup- 
port themselves by picking up the small insects ensnared in their neigh- 
borhood, and which are too minute to satisfy the appetite of the proprietor 
of the snare. This appears to be quite a fixed habit among the smaller 
species of Africa. A similar phenomenon I have often observed among 
our American fauna, and shall allude to it in a following chapter (Vol. IT.), 
upon the Babyhood of Spiders. The little ones of a recently escaped 
Nest Par- 
asitism. 
1 Aranéides des Les de la Réunion, ete., page xix, 
~~ *> =. =) = 
