1 10 
Psyche 
[June 
first, places the spider in the cell, backs out and flies away without 
hesitation. Orientation flights were never observed, although my ob- 
servations were confined to females whose nests were already under 
construction so that such flights might have been made when the 
nests were first begun. The spiders are well paralyzed when placed 
in the cell, although in some cases slight movements of their ap- 
pendages are noticeable. In the lab the spiders remained fresh and 
paralyzed for up to thirty days. The length of time involved in 
provisioning the two cells was noted. The female of cell 136 spent 
122-535 sec away from the cell (meandzstd. error = 350.4=1=39.4, 
N = 10 observations), and 7-25 sec at the cell (meanzhstd. error = 
10.6=1=1.9, N = 9 observations). The female of nest 158 spent 
30-700 sec away from the cell (meandzstd. error = i86.0d=20.8, 
N = 10 observations), and 7-127 sec at the cell (meapzbstd. 
error — 24.0=1=11.5, N = 10 observations). 
The number of spiders used to provision a cell varies to some 
extent. Four cells examined prior to the hatching of the larvae con- 
tained 31, 22, 20, and 28 (X — 25.2) spiders, respectively. All 
the spiders in these cells were members of the genus Dictyna (Dic- 
tynidae), the species represented by adults being D. beilans Chamber- 
lin ( T and 9 ), D. sublata Hentz ( 9 ), and Dictyna sp. indet. 
(one 9). A number of immature Dictyna were also found, but these 
could not be determined to species. 
Oviposition was observed once (note 136). In this case the last 
spider was brought in at 4:48 PM. The female remained for 15 
sec with her head in the cell. She then backed out, groomed herself, 
and sat at the cell opening for 5 min 15 sec, after which she stuck 
her head into the opening for 3 sec, came out, turned around, in- 
serted her abdomen into the cell, and remained in that position for 
I min 15 sec. After ovipositing she withdrew her abdomen and re- 
mained motionless at the opening for 20 sec after which she flew off. 
At 5:00:10 PM she returned with the first load of mud for the 
final closure. 
The egg is apparently laid consistently in the same position on 
the prey. In the three cells in which I found an egg that had not 
yet hatched, it had been laid on the last spider placed in the cell. 
In each case this spider was one of the larger ones. The egg was 
laid on the right side of the anterior end of the spider’s opisthosoma, 
oriented so that it was parallel to the midline (fig. 4). 
I he closure of the nest was viewed in its entirety only once (note 
136)- After ovipositing^ the female flew away and returned at 
