. 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. Fig. 107. Cocoons of Theridium tepidariorun snare. (About natural size.) clings to her web by one long fore leg, while with other legs she revolves her cocoon, using the hind legs, as is customary, to draw out the spinning stuff. This issues in numerous diverging filaments, which bunch up in minute loops as the abdomen descends, and are beaten down smooth by the spinnerets. Our widely distributed Latro- dectus mactans^ quite re
. 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. Fig. 107. Cocoons of Theridium tepidariorun snare. (About natural size.) clings to her web by one long fore leg, while with other legs she revolves her cocoon, using the hind legs, as is customary, to draw out the spinning stuff. This issues in numerous diverging filaments, which bunch up in minute loops as the abdomen descends, and are beaten down smooth by the spinnerets. Our widely distributed Latro- dectus mactans^ quite resembles Tepidariorum in cocooning habit; but its ovoid cocoons are larger, being a full half inch at the longer axis, and somewhat more spheri- hiing in her cfj jjj shape. Siic iTiakcs at least as many as four or five cocoons. Theridium serpentinum Hentz ^ is one of our common Lineweaving spi- ders, whose snares are found in dimly lighted cellars and in rooms aban- doned or rarely used. In the angle of a window or wall the Therid- mother spreads her snare of intersecting lines, and establishes „ ' herself at one end thereof, always well towards the top. In the course of time she succeeds in thickening her dwelling place by added threads, until it has formed a sort of shelter of lines much more closely set than those of the rest of the snare. In the neighborhood of this dwelling place and on a line therewith, or just a little above it and to one side, she spins several co- coons, in number four or five usually, but sometimes as many as eight, as shown in the figure. (Fig. 108.) They are little white, oblong or flask shaped flossy balls, about quarter of an inch in diameter, in the centre of which the eggs are depos- ited. In the delicateness and scantiness of the enveloping tissue, this cocoon resembles Steatoda borealis and Phol- cus phalangioides. The eggs are distinctly seen through the silken envelope. When the spiders are hatched they hang for a little while in clusters l
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
