OBSERVATIONS ON THE PREDATORY BEHAVIOR 
OF THE SPIDER 
HYPOCHILUS GE RTS CPI I 
HOFFMAN ( HYPOCHILIDAE) 
By William A. Shear 1 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University 
The primitive, relict spider family Hypochilidae 2 occurs in the 
United States (four species), Chile, Tasmania and China (one spe- 
cies each), and exhibits anatomical characters intermediate between 
the suborders Orthognatha and Labidognatha. Despite the obvious 
importance of these spiders in evolutionary studies, little has been 
done to clarify their behavior. Comstock (1940) briefly described 
the web of Hypochilus thorelli. Gertsch (1958) reviewed the tax- 
onomy of the entire family, noting that while all North American 
members of the family make similar webs (described in detail below), 
Hickmania troglodytes (Tasmania) weaves a large sheet, up to four 
feet long and two feet wide, and Thaida peculiaris (Chile) suspends 
a large mesh funnel up to three feet in diameter among vegetation 
(Zapfe & Gertsch, 1955). The web of Ectatosticta davidi (China) 
is unknown. Hoffman (1963) described H . gertschi from the Ap- 
palachians and noted few differences between its web and that of H. 
thorelli. In 1964, Gertsch described Hypochilus bonneti from Colo- 
rado, and included excellent photographs of the upper part of the 
web and of the egg sacs. Kraus (1965) reported briefly on the 
behavior of captive West Virginia specimens of Id. gertschi which 
he had transported to Germany. 
This study was carried out approximately two miles north of 
Athens, Mercer County, West Virginia, in a typical H. gertschi 
J Study carried out under NSF Grant GB 7346 to the Evolutionary Biology 
Committee of Harvard University (R. Rollins, principal investigator), and 
Richmond Fellowship of the Dept, of Biology. 
Manuscript received by the editor October 16, 1969. 
2 Marples (1968) recently reclassified this family: Hypochilus and Ecta- 
tosticta are left in the Hypochilidae, and Hickmania and Austrochilus are 
placed in their own families, Hickmaniidae and Austrochilidae, respectively. 
Lehtinen (1967) put each genus in its own family: Hypochilidae, Ectatos- 
tictidae, Hickmanidae (sic) and Thaididae (this last is the proper name 
for the family including Thaida , a senior synonym of Austrochilus) . Marples’ 
study is convincing, that of Lehtinen somewhat superficial. However, neither 
of these changes affects the family name of Hypochilus. 
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