. 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. DEATH AND ITS DISGUISES. 423. Death fashion of Secunda. mummy, and a sepulchre amid the tangled tendrils of fragrant honeysuckle. Not an undesirable kind of death and burial. The second example, tlie Secunda of my notes, liung upon an anipc- lopsis vine against the chapel wall. I quote my journal:",... For two days, September 28th, she has hung absolutely inactive. Yesterday I touched her, and she only slightly moved her f
. 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. DEATH AND ITS DISGUISES. 423. Death fashion of Secunda. mummy, and a sepulchre amid the tangled tendrils of fragrant honeysuckle. Not an undesirable kind of death and burial. The second example, tlie Secunda of my notes, liung upon an anipc- lopsis vine against the chapel wall. I quote my journal:",... For two days, September 28th, she has hung absolutely inactive. Yesterday I touched her, and she only slightly moved her fore legs, then sank back into position. She is entirely natural in her appearance, and no one observing her would suspect that any- thing is the matter with her. This morn- ing I put a vibrating tuning fork to one of her legs, and the only sign of anima- tion she gave was slowly but slightly draw- ing the legs towards her. Under ordinary circumstances this act would have produced the wildest excitement. At four of the afternoon I repeated the test,' and action seemed to be a little more decided. The fore legs were curved inward, and an hour afterward were not relaxed again. I then touched the spider with my finger, and she drew her legs up a little closer, making no further sign Sep- tember 29th. Secunda has left her position on the shield, crawled along the stem of an adjoining leaf, and is hanging with her back downward and her feet clasped around the stem close up against the ; (Fig. 360.) For a week thereafter the record contin- ued with little vai-iation, except that Secunda would shift her situation a little, several inches to one side, and above or below. Once after long hunting I discovered her by see- ing her swing down by a thread between my hands. She dropped six or seven inches, climbed up the thread sluggishly, and re- sumed position with her feet clasped above the stem. I never could find her again. She had doubtless nestled out of sight and died in the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
