2 
Psyche 
[February 
13. For two weeks previous to this date, the spider had refused 
all food. At eight o’clock that morning it seemed fairly lively. 
At 2:30 p. m. when I again tried to tempt it with food, I found it 
lying prostrate on the floor of the cage, with the legs stretched 
out flat. When I attempted to place it in preserving fluid, I 
found signs of life, and after watching over it for fifteen minutes 
I found that the spider was actually in the throes of moulting. 
First the carapace cracked at the sides and along the front, and 
fell back on the abdomen and lay there inverted. Then by 
bodily contortions the skin was slowly slipped off the abdomen, 
or rather the abdomen slowly emerged from the old skin. At 
this stage all of the legs, as well as the mouth-parts, were still 
in the old skin, and it was puzzling to me to guess just how they 
would be shed. Up to this time the legs had been spread in a 
very natural, free position, but before the abdomen had com- 
pletely left the old skin I noticed that the spider was gradually 
raising itself up, up and up, gradually pulling itself out of the 
old legs, palpus and chelicera coverings. It was a beautiful 
process to observe. All eight legs were lifted simultaneously, 
and soon the spider lay helpless on its side, entirely free from 
the old skin, all limp and clean, and beautiful as new velvet. 
The entire process of moulting, from the time that the skin began 
to crack at the shield to the complete extrication, took twenty 
minutes. Fig. 1 shows the shed skin intact, just as the spider 
left it. C — carapace, DC — dorsal covering, v. c. — ^ventral covering, 
F — one of the fangs removed from the main portion for photo- 
graphing. 
The spider after moulting was very pleasing to the eye. 
While the carapace had the same grayish-white color, the ab- 
domen had a beautiful covering of silvery brown hair. Some 
change had occurred in the color of the legs and chelicerae, for 
while they had been brown, after moulting they were of a slate 
gray color, and remained thus without change until the death of 
the spider, five months later. However, three weeks after 
moulting it was noticeable that some of the hairs on the front 
legs had changed to brown. I suppose that the slate color is not 
a permanent character, but one that changes with age. 
Another item of interest was the behavior of the dorsal 
