No. 503] THE ACTIVITIES OF ARANEADS 705 



rapidly to the center of the snare, then locates the insect 

 precisely by pulling successively different radii. In this 

 food-gathering she seems to use touch alone, and it is 

 questionable whether she at any time sees her food, for 

 even in the process of mastication and sucking she holds 

 it beneath her head. And this sense of touch is so deli- 

 cate that by it the spider can to some extent determine the 

 nature of the object that causes the impact, as, e. g., 

 whether it be large or small. 



Likewise with the mating, that I observed this summer 

 in Epeira marmorea. The female was near the center 

 of her snare hanging vertically downward with her dorsal 

 surface, her vision area, away from the male. He was 

 at the outer end of one of her radii and though his 

 head was turned towards her he perceived her position 

 and tested her inclinations not by sight but by touch com- 

 municated through that radius; they signalled to each 

 other by pulls and counter pulls of the line, he climbed 

 along the radius towards her, at nearly every step re- 

 peating his pulling, then when about an inch away he 

 advanced rapidly to press his palpi against her epigynum 

 while she drew in her extremities close to her body. Each 

 such act was only of momentary duration, and at its 

 end he moved away along the same radius, repeated his 

 signalling, then again advanced towards her; thus there 

 were numerous repeated copulations during the half hour 

 I watched the pair. 7 The female never saw the male at 

 all, and he perceived her so far as I could determine by 

 the sense of touch alone. In an earlier study, where I 



'Previous observers of European species of this genus have described 

 this process in much the same way. Compare: 



Menge, A. Ueber die Lebensweise der Arachniden. Sehriftcn naturf. 

 Ges. Danzig, 4, 1843. 



Menge. Preussische Spinnen, T. Ibid. (N. F.), 1, 1866. 



Termeyer, R. M. de. Researches and Experiments upon Silk from 

 Spiders, etc. Translated by Burt G. Wilder, Proc. Essex Inst., 5, 1866. 



Lendl, A. Ueber die Begattung der gekronten Kreuzspinne (Epeira 

 diademata CI.). Termesz. Fusetel; Budapest, 10, 1886. 



