. 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. THE GENESIS OF SNARES. 337 day and seeks some near by retreat. This may be a curled leaf, the shelter of a projecting bit of bark, a recess in the rocks, or other like refuge, in which she is measurably protected from her enemies. As she Genesis abandons the centre or hub of her orb, upon which she has m ,• been hanging during the night and early morning, she leaves behind her the precautionary thread which is habitually drawn
. 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. THE GENESIS OF SNARES. 337 day and seeks some near by retreat. This may be a curled leaf, the shelter of a projecting bit of bark, a recess in the rocks, or other like refuge, in which she is measurably protected from her enemies. As she Genesis abandons the centre or hub of her orb, upon which she has m ,• been hanging during the night and early morning, she leaves behind her the precautionary thread which is habitually drawn out after spiders when they move, and which I have called the dragline. This thread is carried from the hub to tlie point of retreat. It can nearly always be traced by a careful examination of the orb, and by means of it the practiced spider hunter can frequentlj' trace this imp e j^Qgj. secretive species to her snare. This is not universally the case, however, as I have sometimes been foiled in attempting to find Epeira strix by her dragline. How- ever, the custom prevails, and, with less secretive species, the line can more readily be used as a trail to the spider's re- treat. I do not know that this line serves any other purpose than a sort of gang- way by which the spider leaves her web and returns to it when the evening shades begin to fall. Nevertheless, one may recognize in it, per- haps, the germ of the trap- line. With other species, such as Epeira trifolium and Epeira insularis, the trapline is more sharply differentiated from the snare itself, and is specialized in its uses. It is a line connected by more or less deltated branches with the Trail a-nd. rpgjgjj retreat of the spider in her leafy or silken tent. This is habit- ually a single line in the species just named. The end by which it is connected with the hub of the orb diverges into several branches, ^ forming a delta or triangular pyramid, the basal lines of which seize the hub at several points. The opposi
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
