. American spiders and their spinningwork. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits . y. The weight of the spider, aided by the violent agi- tation of its snare when struck by an insect, pulls down theseeight points in such a way that a little conical or dome like tent is formed 346 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. just above the spiders feet. This is illustrated at Fig. 157, page same effect is produced by tlie stay lines which are attached above,and which often draw up parts of the surface, as at Fig. 3
. American spiders and their spinningwork. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits . y. The weight of the spider, aided by the violent agi- tation of its snare when struck by an insect, pulls down theseeight points in such a way that a little conical or dome like tent is formed 346 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. just above the spiders feet. This is illustrated at Fig. 157, page same effect is produced by tlie stay lines which are attached above,and which often draw up parts of the surface, as at Fig. 337, into littledomes. AVe might almost think of these as the germinal form of thetube as it is seen in the Lineweaving species. But still more distinctlywe may see the habit naturally engrafted upon such an interesting speciesas Theridium zelotypum or Theridium riparium, whose beautiful nestinghabits are described in Chapter XVIII. In these species the inside liningof the nest of gathei-ed sticks and rubbish is a distinct tube, which issometimes prolonged beyond the mouth of its den. Indeed, whenever a Theridioid spider takes its place beneath a leaf or. ?IllIf^ Fig. 337. Snare of Linyphia costata, showing tent like elevations. other shelter, as it often does, especially under stress of continued badweather, it is sure to spin above and around its abdomen a littlea Tube conical mass of lines, which, by the pressure upwards of the an-imal, is compacted or beaten into a concave form. If the weathercontinue unfavorable, or the spider is undisturbed for a considerable lengthof time, this little rudimentary tube will gradually make encroachmentsupon the leafy shelter, and will be prolonged outward and , when the sun comes out and invites anew to web spinning, it is in-evitable that the snare will be spun just beneath or close in the neighbor-hood of this tube like shelter. Thus it becomes easy to explain the ap-pearance of a tubemaking habit, not only in Lineweavers, but
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