. 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. 222 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINOWORK. weaver. Her snares are found in all sorts of positions and locations. In the angles of houses and walls, among leaves of trees, in shrubs and grasses, in old stumps, and caves and holes in the ground, wherever a Trest- footing can be had and a spinneret can be laid, this univer- Ploor ^'""^ occupant of outhouses and grounds proceeds to weave her snare. Under all circumstanc
. 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. 222 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINOWORK. weaver. Her snares are found in all sorts of positions and locations. In the angles of houses and walls, among leaves of trees, in shrubs and grasses, in old stumps, and caves and holes in the ground, wherever a Trest- footing can be had and a spinneret can be laid, this univer- Ploor ^'""^ occupant of outhouses and grounds proceeds to weave her snare. Under all circumstances she shows rare ability to adapt it to the particular site where chance has fixed her abode. If bracing is required from above she sends upward a series of lines which support her sheeted snare. If bracing is required from below, as we have seen (Fig. 208), she sends out a series of trestle lines, which keep the sheet in poise, and suggest the methods of carpenters when scaffolding a platform or floor, or trestling a bridge. If bracing be needed both above and be- low, as in the pouched snare (Fig. 209) woven between the bars of a farm fence, the lines are sent out in the very positions to give the required sup- port. In fact, a civil en- gineer would decide, np- on examination, that his profession could have sug- gested no better arrange- ment under the circum- stances. _ In the lawns and _=• grounds around Philadelphia, and indeed almost every- where in the United States, Agalena's snare will often be seen spread like a broad white sheet upon the upper surface of hedges and thick set plants, such as arbor vita3, boxwood, and honeysuckle. Into these she works a silk lined cylindri- cal tunnel, which extends to the very heart of the plant, and often to the ground beneath. She manages, in some way, so to lash back the stems and twigs that, in spite of the natural elasticity and growtli force of the plant, the tubular den or home is lield quite in Tubmar pjg^^jg ]^q^ ^j^jy gQ
Size: 1666px × 1499px
Photo credit: © Central Historic Books / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
