1969] 
Shear — Hypochilus gertschi 
417 
4. Aerial webs built, prey subdued by biting and wrapping. 
5. Same as 4, but prey overcome by wrapping only. 
Of particular significance is the fact that > Hypochilus , which builds 
the most primitive web of those known in its primitive family, has 
never been observed to use silk as an offensive weapon. Instead, the 
extreme stickiness of the cribellate silk of the lampshade is relied on 
to hold prey until it can be bitten to death. Hypochilus response to 
a second prey, before it has finished feeding on the first, clearly places 
it between steps two and three in Eberhard’s scheme. Hypochilus 
makes an aerial web but either ignores a, second prey, or abandons 
the first to attack the second, the sequences probably dependent on 
the size and activity of the second prey, and the degree to which the 
spider has fed on the first. In any case, behavior similar to that seen 
by Eberhard ( 1967) in Diguetia , in which the original prey is secured 
to the web by silk to prevent its loss while a second prey is attacked, 
does not seem to occur in H. gertschi. 
Literature cited 
Comstock, J. H. 
1940. The Spider Book , revised and edited by W. J. Gertsch. Comstock 
Publishing Co., Ithaca, N. Y. 720 p.p. 
Eberhard, W. G. 
1967. Attack behavior of diguetid spiders and the origin of prey wrap- 
ping in spiders. Psyche 74: 173-181. 
Gertsch, W. J. 
1958. The spider family Hypochilidae. Amer. Mus. Nov. 1912: 1-28. 
1964. A review of the genus Hypochilus and a description of a new 
species from Colorado (Araneae, Hypochilidae) Amer. Mus. Nov. 
2203: 1-14. 
Hoffman, R. L. 
1963. A second species of the spider genus Hypochilus from eastern 
North America. Amer. Mus. Nov. 2148: 1-8. 
Kaston, B. J. 
1964. The evolution of spider webs. Amer. Zool. 4: 191-207. 
Kraus, O. 
1965. Hypochilus , ein “lebendes Fossil” unter den Spinnen. Nat. und 
Mus. 95: 150-162. 
Lehtinen, P. 
1967. Classification of the cribellate spiders. . . . Ann. Zool. Fennici 
4: 199-468. 
Marples, B. J. 
1968. The hypochilomorph spiders. Proc. Linn. Soc. London 179: 11-31. 
Zapfe, H. and W. J. Gertsch 
1955. Filogenia y funcion en Austrochilus manni. Trab. Lab. Zool. 
Univ. Chile 2: 5-52. 
