298 
Psyche 
[Vol. 89 
population of H. venatoria were used to obtain data for eggs, first 
and second postembryos and spiderling instars. Immature spiders, 
through 4th-5th instars, were housed in Tygon® flexible plastic 
tubing, an adaptation of methods developed by Peck and Whitcomb 
(1967). Two tubing sizes were employed, 13 mm and 24 mm diame- 
ter. The smaller bore tubing was cut to 10 cm lengths while the 24 
mm tubing was cut into lengths of 20 cm to house spiders from 5th 
to 9th instars. Plastic foam culture-vial stoppers for 14-19 mm 
openings sealed the end of the tubing. Tube ends had only to be 
dipped into water weekly to maintain adequate moisture and 
humidity levels for the spiders. An open cell foam plug allowed for 
adequate ventilation while preventing the spider’s escape from the 
tube. While these cages were not as large as would perhaps be ideal, 
they were easily maintained and stored in a relatively small area, 
and the spiders stayed healthy in them. 
Moist cotton swabs were used to clean the tubes when clear vision 
into them was obscured by prey debris, spider wastes or mold. A 
rolled piece of 9 cm diameter filter paper was inserted into the 24 mm 
diameter tubes to further reduce cleaning frequency as the spiders 
tended to retreat onto the papers and defecate. Changing the filter 
paper at regular intervals maintained a high degree of sanitation. 
Adult spiders were housed in 0.5 1 clear plastic cups. A heated 
cork boring tool was used to fashion holes in lids in which were 
inserted open cell, plastic culture tube stoppers which allowed for 
ventilation. Paper can lids were inverted as bottoms to the plastic 
cup spider cages and these were lined with 9 cm filter paper to 
facilitate cleaning. 
First instar H. venatoria were reared on adult vestigial-winged 
fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster Meigen, for which the spiders 
showed a clear preference over an occasional cabbage looper larva, 
Trichoplusia ni (Hiibner). Later instars were fed on adult native 
fruit flies (family Drosophilidae, genus unknown), which were 
larger than D. melanogaster, but the spiderlings showed greatest 
weight gain on mealworm larvae (Tenebrio molitor L.). Mealworms 
became the mainstay of the spiders’ diet through the 10th and 11th 
instars, when the spiders were fed adult crickets, Acheta domesticus 
(L.), to extend feeding intervals. Houseflies, Musca domestica L., 
were introduced in the pupal stage during the middle instars and 
were fed on as the adult flies emerged. 
