. American spiders and their spinningwork. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits . r working the weft on anunderground frame. NEST MAKING : ITS ORIGIN AND USE. 32; surface about equal in diameter to twice the length of its body, or tothe spread of its legs.^ Thus the thick texture of the sheeted web is produced by the act ofbeating downward ^\ith the long spinnerets, repeated motions of which upand down make little loops, which thicken over the surface and are beatendown and then smoothed over by the spinnerets. (Fig.
. American spiders and their spinningwork. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits . r working the weft on anunderground frame. NEST MAKING : ITS ORIGIN AND USE. 32; surface about equal in diameter to twice the length of its body, or tothe spread of its legs.^ Thus the thick texture of the sheeted web is produced by the act ofbeating downward ^\ith the long spinnerets, repeated motions of which upand down make little loops, which thicken over the surface and are beatendown and then smoothed over by the spinnerets. (Fig. 313.) It will beseen that this action does not differ from that of all other spiders whileengaged upon similar spinningwork. The spinning habit is not greatly developed among the Lycosids, al-though that group of spiders furnishes some interesting examples of nestmaking. Nevertheless, in the work of making the cocoon, inmong which its spinning industry is most conspicuous, we find Lycosa dropping into the common method of fabrication. I have ob-served and described the mode of spinning a cocoonwhich is as follows:A circular cushion ,--:?^^^^i*Hi^^5^^^^. Fig. 313. Tarantula putting the weft upon her rug. (Eurypelma Hentzii.) of beautiful whitesilk about three-fourths of an iueliin diameter is thepiece out of whiclithe round egg bagof Lycosa is spinning thisthe spiders feetclasp the circum-ference of the co-coon, and the body of the animal is slowly revolved. The abdomen is lifted up, thus drawingout short loops of silk from the extended spinnerets, which, when theabdomen is dropped again, contract and leave a flossy curl of silk at thepoint of attachment. The abdomen is also swayed back and forward, thefilaments from the spinnefets following the motion as the spider turns,and thus an even thickness of silk is laid upon the eggs. ^ I have seen Saltigrades engage in the same act of spinning their co-coon and silken cylindrical nest, and the words used for describing theab
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidamericanspid, bookyear1889
