1938] 
“Shuttling” in Argiope aurantia 
63 
1935 Data 
The 1935 observations concern 55 individuals, with 167 
fork-to-dorsum responses, on 129 occasions. 3 The points to 
be dealt with concern maturation effects, repetitions of 
stimulus, accessory responses and shuttlings to other than 
the normal stimulus. 
Maturation . It appears that the shuttling pattern is to 
no little extent a function of the degree of maturation. 
A. aurantia changes in appearance so characteristically in 
the course of its growth, that statement in these terms should 
not be too difficult, but the present observations are recorded 
by date only. The following figures represent the situation 
with the fork-to-dorsum stimuli where the response involved 
shuttling, and if shuttling did not occur, the nature of the 
principal response that was made. 
8-1-35 
9-1-35 
9-16-35 
lo-i-; 
Dates 
to 
to 
to 
to 
on 
7-31-35 
8-17-35 
9-15-35 
9-30-35 
No. of responses 
31 
75 
30 
21 
10 
per cent shuttle 
....58 
17 
23 
10 
0 
per cent spread 
....19 
40 
3 
10 
40 
per cent reach 
.... 6 
16 
23 
24 
10 
per cent seize 
.... 0 
18 
23 
28 
0 
per cent others 
. . . .13 
7 
23 
14 
10 
per cent imperceptible 
.... 3 
1 
3 
14 
40 
3 An “occasion” is here a period during which an individual is ob- 
served uninterruptedly. Notes of observations on one individual, then 
on a second individual, then on the first again, would embody three 
“occasions.” 
The figures in this report share in the limitations that beset quanti- 
tations of behavior generally, “intelligence quotients” for example. 
Their function is to depict in specially condensed form, the trend of a 
mass of detail. Even numbers of individuals are approximations. One 
may perhaps take for granted that an identical appearing individual 
occupying the same nest, is the same spider; but less so that an 
A. aurantia appearing in a new location has not been previously ob- 
served in another one. One night in early September, 1934, a high 
wind blew from a southerly direction across the area under study. On 
next visit (9-10-34) nearly all the aurantias had disappeared from a 
certain portion, and newcomers were plentifully distributed along a 
stone wall bounding this portion on the north. 
The location is some old pasture land in Hopkinton, Mass., 20-25 
miles from the writer’s domicile and work, which accounts for the 
irregular periods of observation. In each year, the writer was absent 
during the latter half of August. 
