38 
Psyche 
[Vol. 89 
bouncing may be an anti-predator behavior similar to the bouncing 
flight of craneflies and the rapid vibrating of opilionids and 
pholcids. 
Prey Capture Behavior. 
Successful captures of five fruitflies ( Drosophila-sizQ ), one 4 mm 
long dolichopodid fly, one unidentified 1 mm fly, three 3^t mm 
ants, and one 5 mm lepidopteran larva were observed (by YDL). Of 
these, seven were trapped in the rim and three in the cone. All but 
one sequence conformed to the description given below. Like other 
uloborids (Marples, 1962; Eberhard, 1969; Lubin et al., 1978) U. 
conus and U. bispiralis immobilize all insects by wrapping in silk. 
Spiders ran out to the cone on an inner orb radius to reach insects 
trapped in the rim sticky spiral, squeezed through the cone (often 
turning sideways to do so) and continued out onto the undersurface 
of the rim. If an insect was trapped on the cone sticky spiral, the 
spider went through the cone and ran down the outer surface of the 
cone. Upon reaching the insect, the spider often tapped it with legs I, 
turned 180° so that it faced the hub (or upward on the cone) and 
began to wrap. Initially the prey was wrapped from a distance by 
throwing sheets of silk backwards with legs IV. Later the spider 
moved into contact with the prey and held it with legs II and III 
while wrapping. The spider interrupted wrapping to cut sticky spiral 
attachments, then cut the inner radius attachment (toward the hub) 
and continued to wrap while holding the end of the radius with one 
leg I. Finally, the outer (distal) end of the radius was cut and the 
prey was held free of the web in legs II and III while the spider hung 
from the broken radius by legs I, bridging the gap with its body, and 
wrapped the prey with legs IV while rotating it occasionally with the 
palps or legs. 
All prey were carried to the hub in the palps (with the aid of the 
chelicerae), held “overhead” in characteristic uloborid fashion. 
After transferring the prey package from the legs to the palps, the 
spider attached a dragline to the distal end of the broken radius and 
then to the proximal end, thus closing the gap. At the hub the spider 
again transferred the prey from the palps to legs II and III and 
wrapped it while hanging from the dragline thread beneath the hub. 
In most instances the dragline thread appeared to be broken and the 
spider spanned the gap with its body. 
