And this is what the mere collector entirely misses. Collecting is of course necessary, for a complete examination is never possible in the living specimen, and moreover without examples kept as types for reference we should lose our way in the multitude of living forms. But as an end in itself it is of vastly inferior value. The writer will be well content if he has succeeded in arousing the curiosity of some with regard to the humble life that surrounds us, and in stimulating a few who possess the requisite keenness and patience to add to our store of knowledge by new observations of their own.
LITERATURE
Most of the large publications on the Arachnid fauna of different countries give some preliminary account of the habits of spiders, but the only considerable work entirely devoted to that subject is McCook’s American Spiders and their Spinning-work (Philadelphia, 1893). A small but interesting book on The Structure and Habits of Spiders was published ten years previously by Emerton (Boston, 1883). But the reader who wishes to pursue further the study of some point to which his attention has been called in the foregoing pages may desire to be referred, for fuller details, to the original papers.
Many writers have described the spinning of the circular snare, and indeed it is quite easy for any one to watch the operation for himself; but McCook goes into the matter in great detail and figures many interesting variants of its normal form. J. H. Fabre’s delightful Souvenirs entomologiques (Delagrave, Paris) have been issued at intervals for many years past, and mostly deal with insects. In Series 9, however, he has an entertaining chapter on “Les Epeires.” That the “viscid globules” arranged themselves mechanically was first demonstrated by C. V. Boys (Nature, xl, 1889, p. 250). The same writer experimented on the sense of hearing in spiders (Nature, xxiii, 1880, p. 149). The interesting paper by G. and E. Peckham on the mental powers of spiders is to be found in the Journal of Morphology (Boston U.S.A. i, 1887, p. 403.)
The aeronautic habit has engaged the attention of many arachnologists. Blackwall dealt with it in various papers in the Transactions of the Linnaean Society between 1833 and 1841, but the most complete account is to be found in McCook’s original papers which are summarised in his book already cited.
With regard to the spinning operations of Agelena the reader may consult a paper by the present writer in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, August, 1891.
The habits of the Water Spider were first described by de Lignac in a Mémoire published in 1749. Since that date many writers, notably Wagner and Plateau, have dealt with the subject. The paper by the last named in the Annales des Sciences naturelles, 1867, p. 345, is particularly worth reading.
E. Peckham deals with “Protective Resemblances in Spiders” in the publication of the Natural History Society of Wisconsin for 1889.