1987] 
Hodge — Orb weaving spider 
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DAYS AT WEB SITE 
Figure 1. Comparison of web site residence times of spiders released into the pine 
forest and the deciduous forest (significantly different, p < 0.01). 
If spider web site relocations occur at random, then the expected 
distribution of time intervals between relocations should follow a 
negative exponential distribution, which describes random events 
over a time-course (Bailey 1964; Ross 1970). Spider residence times 
in each habitat were compared to values expected from a fitted 
negative exponential distribution. There was no significant differ- 
ence between the observed residence times and those expected for 
the pine stand (0.01 < 0.05; Fig. 4), supporting a random movement 
hypothesis. In contrast, observed and expected residence times in 
the deciduous woods were highly significantly different (p < 0.001; 
Fig. 5). 
A much higher percentage of quadrats had no canopy in the pine 
stand than in the deciduous woods; the deciduous area had a higher 
percentage of canopy than did the pine stand (Table 2). The quantity 
of vegetation below 1 m in each quadrat of the pine versus the 
deciduous area was not significantly different (t-test, p > 0.05). 
