. 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. NESTING HABITS AND PROTECTIVE ARCHITECTURE. 305 enables her to dispense with much of her shelter. In stone walls along Niantic Bay (Connecticut) and Cape Ann (Massachusetts) many of this species are domiciled. They spin their nest upward against the boulders built into the wall, and avail themselves of the little cav- ities and rugosities therein. Thus sheltered above and from within they need less protection, and ac- cordingly
. 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. NESTING HABITS AND PROTECTIVE ARCHITECTURE. 305 enables her to dispense with much of her shelter. In stone walls along Niantic Bay (Connecticut) and Cape Ann (Massachusetts) many of this species are domiciled. They spin their nest upward against the boulders built into the wall, and avail themselves of the little cav- ities and rugosities therein. Thus sheltered above and from within they need less protection, and ac- cordingly their silken tents are generally very scant and rudi- mentary. Closely related to Triaranea in the character of her nidification is the Labyrinth spider, ^^'^y- one of the most inter- rmth ,. J. ... Spider's ^'*'"g «^ °'^'" ^"^ig^- Nest. nous fauna. Labyrin- thea weaves a silken dome, hung within a maze of crossed lines, precisely like that of Triaranea. I have marked a dif- ference in the character of the trapline, which seems to consist of a number of threads more commonly than in the case of Triaranea. There is one Fig. 281. Cylindrical nest of Epeira thaddeus beneath a tent of clustered leaves. however, which seems to be peculiar to this species. Within the midst of her maze will almost al- ways be found a dry leaf; and underneath this the spider rests, sometimes without much inter- posed spinningwork, but at other times within the ordinary silken dome. (See Chapter VIII., Fig. 114.) The leaf may frequently fall within her retitelarian snare, and probably is not, as a rule, brought there by the action of the spider, although I cannot affirm this. But it is certain that, the leaf being within her maze, she does draw it to some central place and cluster the netted lines around it as a central point, and Fio. 282. The bell shaped silken then establishes hcrsclf beneath the leaf, against thf retitelarian mr^^T^'tra"^ which, iu the coursc of time
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
