. 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. 160 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. ning over water, and behavior when cast upon water, I wished to observe. The beaten marsh grass yielded nie no Doloniedes, but instead several half grown Tetragnatha vermiformis, Emerton, dropped upon the surface. To my surprise they seemed not the least disconcerted, but immediately recovered themselves and with one exception ran to the shore precisely as do the Lycosids. The except
. 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. 160 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. ning over water, and behavior when cast upon water, I wished to observe. The beaten marsh grass yielded nie no Doloniedes, but instead several half grown Tetragnatha vermiformis, Emerton, dropped upon the surface. To my surprise they seemed not the least disconcerted, but immediately recovered themselves and with one exception ran to the shore precisely as do the Lycosids. The excepted individual had been thrown out from the bank farther than its comrades. For a moment it paused, its body bowed and held upward upon the eight legs which were spread out so that the feet marked the outline of a rude circle upon the surface. Then it started rapidly across the mouth of a tiny baylet between a tongue of the land and the main shore, traversed the intervening space, and pulled itself to the land by the overhanging grass. My attention was attracted by the remarkable fact that during this transit there was no appreciable movement of the legs. Tliat an Orbweaver should be able to glide so rapidly and gracefully over water was a fact in itself sufficiently new to me; but that one should do this without any physical exertion whatever amazed me. Could the action of the air upon the body have been the impelling force ? I addressed myself eagerly to the solution of this mystery. A second clump of grasses was beaten, and a Tetragnatha fell upon the lake. She ran over the water to the shore, using apparently her fore legs as paddles. Be- fore she climbed into the grasses I thrust my cane under her body, gently lifted her up, and reaching outward as far as I could, gradually sunk the tip of the stick into the water without causing any ruffling of the surface. The spider was thus Silken sails: Tetragnatha navigating a lake. ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^j^j^ ^^^ ^j^^^^^ ^^^^ the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
