. American spiders and their spinning work. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits. Spiders. THE RAY SPIDER AND HER SNARE. 201 have even seen individuals with the back turned downward, Fig. 194, as is the habit with the Triangle spider and with all those species who make a dome or horizontal orbweb, as the Basilica spider and the Orchard spider. (See Chapter IX.) If now the feet of the spider be carefully examined with a good glass, a coil of slack line will be seen, precisely as in the case of the Triangle spider. Thi
. American spiders and their spinning work. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits. Spiders. THE RAY SPIDER AND HER SNARE. 201 have even seen individuals with the back turned downward, Fig. 194, as is the habit with the Triangle spider and with all those species who make a dome or horizontal orbweb, as the Basilica spider and the Orchard spider. (See Chapter IX.) If now the feet of the spider be carefully examined with a good glass, a coil of slack line will be seen, precisely as in the case of the Triangle spider. This is illustrated at Fig. 194, Mdiere a, b, c, are the axes of several rays, grasped in the third (3) and fourth (4) pairs of legs, and SI is the coil or slack line curled up between these and the fore pairs (1 and 2), or simply between the pair of fore legs; that is, between the two first and the two second feet. As the spider does not exceed one-eighth of an inch in body length, and the position of the snare is within cavities and interstices of rocks, where the light does not bring out the delicate tracery of the fine webs, the observation of these and other points of like char- acter, is a matter of some difficul- ty. But, although the exact relations of the coil to the feet were some- times in doubt, and indeed seemed to vary somewhat, the existence of the coil and its general relations were determined beyond doubt. It is also certain that the slack line sharply uncoils and straightens when the spider releases her grasp upon the trapline, and that the web un- bends and shoots quickly forward. It is instantly changed from the bowed or conical form of Figs. 190 and 191 to the circular plane of Figs. 187 and 188. The following points, however, long evaded my observation, before webs were found which presented the conditions for successful study. But . at last I was well satisfied. The " springing" of the snare is th S caused by the sudden releasing of the trapline fr
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