143 
1985] Wise & Reillo — Enoplognatha 
(2) Only the Maine populations appeared to have had signifi- 
cant numbers of penultimate females; however, they were a 
minority. Most spiders appeared to be mature. Develop- 
ment was more advanced in the southern populations, with 
many females guarding egg sacs. Thus in Maine we may 
have slightly underestimated the frequencies of the red 
morphs (Hippa and Oksala 1979); however, this possible 
bias makes our conclusion of significant morph frequency 
differences between regions conservative, since the sample 
from Maine had the highest frequencies of ovata, the 
phenotype with the most red coloration. 
(3) Definition of new species in the E. ovata group by Hippa 
and Oksala (1982) is based upon relatively few museum 
specimens. This type of information does not indicate 
whether or not expressions of the red morphs differs 
between E. ovata and the newly recognized Enoplognatha 
species, nor does it indicate the extent of niche differences. 
The most extensive sets of data available on morph frequencies in 
European populations are based on the assumptions of three dis- 
tinct morphs and one species (eg. Oxford 1976, Hippa and Oksala 
1979). Hence our data are directly comparable to that collected by 
European researchers. Future, more detailed research on both con- 
tinents will have to take into account the possible existence of more 
than one species in some E. ovata populations. However, this taxo- 
nomic problem does not prevent one from making preliminary 
statements about patterns in morph frequencies. 
Acknowledgments 
We wish to thank Diane Debinski for valuable assistance in the 
field. Debbie Gordon of the Huyck Preserve and Daniel Dindal of 
the SUNY Lafayette Experimental Station gave permission to 
examine E. ovata populations in the respective research areas and 
graciously assisted with logistics. This research was supported by 
National Science Foundation Grant DEB 81-19309. 
