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[Vol. 87 
with high-density silk sites (Fig. 3). If this were the case then the dead 
individuals may have been removed from the web by nestmates or, 
upon becoming ill, may have left the web on their own as has been 
described in ants, bees and termites (Wilson, 1971). 
I have observed one instance of oophagy by an adult female M. 
gregalis. Upon removing the uneaten eggs from the female, dissecting 
and examining them under a microscope (40X), I found the eggs to be 
desiccated, suggesting that the eggs were dead before the female 
began feeding. The consumption of nonliving egg masses would be 
expected to remove what would have been excellent growth media for 
bacteria, and similar behavior has been observed in bees and ants 
(Wilson, 1971). 
The rarity of the aforementioned events makes it unlikely that such 
behavior could be examined quantitatively. Possibly, many of the 
above behaviors are more prevalant at night when these animals are 
more active (Tietjen, 1981). Under such viewing conditions, it would 
be difficult to record cannibalism in M. gregalis. However, these 
data, in conjunction with the quantitative data presented in this 
paper, suggest that nest-cleaning and other related behaviors do 
occur in M. gregalis. 
Acknowledgements. I am grateful to Dr. P. N. Witt for many 
helpful discussions during the course of this research and the 
preparation of the manuscript. The research was supported by 
National Science Foundation grant BNS 75-09915 to P. N. Witt and 
W. J. Tietjen, and was conducted in the laboratories of the North 
Carolina Department of Mental Health. 
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