260 
PecJchaiv—The Sense of Sight in Spiders. 
The paper used in these experiments was of medium weight, 
smooth but not glazed. The green paper in which two indi¬ 
viduals of Astia vittata laid their eggs was of a light shade 
which did not at all resemble the green of grass or foliage, so 
that they cannot have chosen it as a familiar color. 
Phidippus morsitans seemed to recognize her cocoon by sight 
more quickly than Astia vittata. It must be remembered, 
however, that she is a much larger spider and makes a very 
much larger nest. Moreover, the nest is not only conspicuous 
for its size, but is very difficult to imitate in cotton, as its 
silky, sticky texture catches and holds many little particles of 
dust and dirt, and it thus has a very characteristic appearance. 
One other circumstance that helped her was that she, although 
larger than vittata, was placed in a much smaller box. 
The boxes in which the spiders were kept were moved about 
every day, so that the corner in which the nest was placed bore 
no constant relation to the points of the compass. This factor, 
therefore, could not have influenced the action of the spiders. 
The idea of surrounding the cocoons with colored paper was 
suggested by our success with similar experiments on the nests 
of ground wasps. We found that if we placed a large sheet of 
colored paper with a hole in the middle over the entrance to 
the nest, Vespa germanica learned within a few hours to asso¬ 
ciate the color with the nest, and so strong was the association 
that when the paper was removed to some distance on the 
ground and a second sheet of a different color substituted for 
it, the wasps followed the paper to which they had become ac¬ 
customed and were some time in discovering where their nest 
actually was. 21 
We have found it difficult to devise tests which will yield 
positive evidence concerning the sensations of spiders and es¬ 
pecially to determine whether they have a perception of color. 
The experiments which we made with colored glass 22 were open 
to objections of which we were fully conscious, and those which 
21 Some Observations on the Special Senses of Wasps. Proc. Nat. 
His. Soc. of Wisconsin, April, 1887, p. 91. 
22 Mental Powers of Spiders, loc. cit., p. 404. 
