. 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. spinnerets, not interwoven with them. M^'hen a sufficient number has been laid upon the original frame, by the repeated spinning and beating action of the spider, the whole presents the appearance of a thickened sheet wrought into the form of a tube. (Fig. 310.) I have observed the overspinning of an under- ground burrow by a Purseweb in a glass jar. The same method was followed, except that the frame lines were spun against th
. 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. spinnerets, not interwoven with them. M^'hen a sufficient number has been laid upon the original frame, by the repeated spinning and beating action of the spider, the whole presents the appearance of a thickened sheet wrought into the form of a tube. (Fig. 310.) I have observed the overspinning of an under- ground burrow by a Purseweb in a glass jar. The same method was followed, except that the frame lines were spun against the concavity of the burrow and the inner surface of the glass. The spider then proceeded to thicken over the frame by spinning against it lit- tle ribbons of silk and beating them down with her long spinnerets. When hang- ing head downward, with claws clasping the frame lines, and spinning upward against the roof of her burrow (Fig. 312), she presented to the observer a rather odd appearance. No doubt this is the mode by which the spider silklines the underground part of her tubular snare Fig. 311. Purseweb spider's nest. View below whicll Cxtcuds beneath the Saud SOmC- ground, as well as above The subterranean ^^,^^3 ^^ f^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^j^g SUrfaCC, and is terminus is expanded and branched. ' cither single, or branched, after the man- ner represented in Fig. 311. (See also Fig. 303.) The same method of spinning is used by our American tarantula, Eu- rypelma hentzii, in weaving the rug upon which it often loves to stay when in artificial confinement. In the act of spinning, the long posterior spinnerets are curved upward and forward (which is, indeed, an habitual position with this tribe), and from the spinning tubes along the exterior part of the spinneret are given numerous fine threads. ,, These are pressed to the ground by the downward motion of the spinnerets. The abdomen is then lifted up, and by this action the threads are drawn out. Again the downward mo- tion is repeated,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
