. 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. PROCtmiNG FOOD AND FEEDING. 265 and transporting the mum- mied insect. If the day happens to be a very good day, viewed from the spi- der's standpoint, or a bad one from that of the flies; if the net site happens to be one where insects are nu- merous, the web will pre- sent a very forlorn appear- ance even early in the day, and by the time evening has come it will be but a tat- tered remnant of the beau- tiful object which cau
. 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. PROCtmiNG FOOD AND FEEDING. 265 and transporting the mum- mied insect. If the day happens to be a very good day, viewed from the spi- der's standpoint, or a bad one from that of the flies; if the net site happens to be one where insects are nu- merous, the web will pre- sent a very forlorn appear- ance even early in the day, and by the time evening has come it will be but a tat- tered remnant of the beau- tiful object which caught the morning dew and glis- tened in the first sunbeams. Fig. 239 is a sketch of a portion of web of Epcira strix, from which a freshl}'^ captured insect had been taken. The lines are drawn very accurately from nature. In the act of captur- ing an insect it becomes necessary for the spider to piece together the parts of the web which are separated either by the breakage of the insect's struggles or the intentional cutting of the spider herself. This mending is done with great deftness and skill. The broken parts are held together by one or more of the feet, usually the hind feet. The claws on one side of the body grasp Mending oj-,g portion of the armature, while those on the other grasp the opposite broken part. At the same time a thread is thrown out from the spinnerets, is attached to the margins of the fracture, and the rent is pieced together in a manner almost impossible to describe, and indeed to observe at all, so rapidly is it accomplished. Fig. 240 is a piece of a broken radius spliced by Epeira strix. R, represents the radius; L, Ij, lines which were run along either side thereof; and W, a zigzag cross line by which the three straight lines were warped together. At other times the angular points of the fracture on either side are simply held together bj"^ one or more lines, as the case requires, thus taking the place of the sundered radii and lost spirals by w
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
