1987] 
Hodge — Orb weaving spider 
349 
and retained for 12 hours in one-dram plastic vials at room tempera- 
ture to ascertain that there were no detrimental effects due to the 
marking procedure. At 0700 hours on 21 July, the 24 marked spiders 
were released into randomly chosen quadrats (using numbers 
selected sequentially from a random number table), resulting in 15 
spiders being released into the pine stand, and 9 into the deciduous 
forest. I censused spider locations and distance moved (if any) each 
morning between 0800 and 0900 hours, from 22 July through 2 
August. Web sites were marked with flags placed in the ground 
below the web, and the letter identity of the spider was written on 
the flag with waterproof ink. 
In order to clarify whether the movement patterns of spiders in 
the two habitats were different, I repeated the experiments using a 
different release protocol. I recollected the 14 spiders remaining in 
the study area on 18 August and released them into randomly 
chosen quadrats within the pine stand on 19 August. Seventeen 
additional spiders, collected from adjacent woods, were marked and 
released at random points within the deciduous area on 24 August. 
All spiders were censused from the time of release through 9 Sep- 
tember (see Table 1). 
Table 1 . Canopy cover at spider release points and endpoints within each habitat. 
Canopy type 
release point 
Canopy type 
end point 
% total released 
(N = 19) 
Deciduous stand 
Open 
Open 
5% 
Open 
Deciduous 
16% 
Mixed 
Deciduous 
5% 
Deciduous 
Open 
21% 
Deciduous 
Deciduous 
53% 
Pine stand 
Open 
Open 
53% 
Open 
Deciduous 
17% 
Pine 
Open 
5% 
Pine 
Deciduous 
10% 
Mixed 
Deciduous 
5% 
Deciduous 
Deciduous 
10% 
♦15% of these spiders did not build webs 
