Kew : Snares or Snap-nets of Triangle Spiders. 209 



third and fourth pairs only. About three-quarters of an inch of 

 line, according- to McCook, is rolled up in this coil. Wilder, it 

 will be remembered, attributes the tightening" of the snare, 

 brought about by the accumulation of the slack, to the pulling 

 action of the hind pair of feet ; but McCook, while admitting 

 that the movements are very rapid and difficult to follow, says 

 that the spider appears first to draw upon the trap-line with the 

 fore feet, placing one before the otherj as a sailor ascends a rope 

 hand over hand ; and, at the same time or immediately there- 

 after, she appears to execute a similar movement with the two 

 hind feet, only reversing the direction. As reg-ards the manner 

 in which the snapping- of the snare is effected, the result of 

 Wilder's observation was, as we have seen, that the slack is 

 released by the loosing- of the hind pair of feet ; and that the 

 spider, which does not unclasp her fore feet, is carried forward 

 with the snare. McCook's statement, however, is that the 

 creature releases the coil by unclasping- simultaneously all the 

 fore feet and those of the third pair ; the hind feet, he says, 

 1 hold to the trap-line and never let go until the spider abandons 

 her position to visit the snare in search of prey ; ' and thus, he 

 adds, the spider, though appearing- to shoot forward with her 

 snare, really remains stationary, or advances but a trifle.* 

 McCook mentions, amongst other things, that he was successful 

 in making the creatures exhibit the snapping process by touch- 

 ing them gently with a pencil ; and it might be reasonably 

 supposed that he attended carefully to the subject ; but one is 

 somewhat puzzled on finding that in a subsequent part of the 

 work in which these observations are recorded he repeats 

 a statement — made by him in a former publication t — which is 

 in agreement, not with his own, but with Wilder's findings. 

 The writer has had no opportunity of clearing- up these points, 

 to which, obviously, a future observer might usefully give 

 attention. 



We have still to compare the snare of Hyptidtes with those 

 of other spiders. A glance at the figures will have been 

 sufficient to suggest that this remarkable triangular net is none 

 other than an incomplete, modified orb-web ; and that this is 

 the case has been maintained by Thorell and others, who enter- 

 tain no doubt that the comparison thus made expresses a true 

 relationship, 



1900 July _•. 



* McCook. iSSc), I.e. 

 fMcCdok, iSS_\ L.c. 



0 



