. 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. MEMORY OF SPIDERS. 45 walls of the burrow and tower, and had evidently been beaten down and pushed in after the manner of Lycosids and Agalenads when beating in the spinningwork of their cocoons and the silk lining of their burrows and tubes. Mrs. Treat having learned how this spider, which had been taken from her grounds, had used the cotton, was led to make several experiments. She placed cotton by the side of seventeen burro
. 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. MEMORY OF SPIDERS. 45 walls of the burrow and tower, and had evidently been beaten down and pushed in after the manner of Lycosids and Agalenads when beating in the spinningwork of their cocoons and the silk lining of their burrows and tubes. Mrs. Treat having learned how this spider, which had been taken from her grounds, had used the cotton, was led to make several experiments. She placed cotton by the side of seventeen burrows, both of the Turret and Tiger spiders, situated upon her lawn, and found eight of the number used the cotton as a lining, but none as artistically as the one above de- scribed. She then went to the edge of a wood, some distance away, and placed cotton by the side of eleven burrows there located. None of the occupants availed themselves of the artificial lining. This seems a curious fact, but the theory which the author uses to account for it, namely, that the individuals upon the lawn must have been descendants of species col- onized from New England in the neighborhood of a cotton manufactory, can hardly be accepted. My recollection is that all these creatures were natives of New Jersey. I am sure at least that the one which wove the cotton lining for me was a native New Jer- seyman. One specimen of those situated upon the lawn not only used the cotton fibre for the lin- ^^Jv^^*^^~^ ing, but also for a cover or door of its dwell- ing. This door she made smooth on /-"„j.*.„ the side, and fastened it firmly down OOttOn. * fi0. 39. Cotton utilized for a door. on the outer edge of her wall. (Fig. 39.) She did not make the same use of the cotton that she would of soft moss, which she sometimes uses in building. The fibre of the cot- ton was drawn out and interwoven among the sticks around the upper portion of the tower, and made to take the place of ordinary web
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
