. 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. Leafy Roof. In some cases the concavities of the leaf are utilized, and the spider, creeping within them, finds an additional shelter, and makes such con- cavities the site for the location of her silken dome. (Figs. 284, 285.) Labyrinthea is able to avail her- self of other roofing material than a leaf, for I have more than once found her snare in the pine forests of New Jersey, having in the centre of the maze a mass of misce
. 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. Leafy Roof. In some cases the concavities of the leaf are utilized, and the spider, creeping within them, finds an additional shelter, and makes such con- cavities the site for the location of her silken dome. (Figs. 284, 285.) Labyrinthea is able to avail her- self of other roofing material than a leaf, for I have more than once found her snare in the pine forests of New Jersey, having in the centre of the maze a mass of miscellaneous material, such as fine sawdust, or the castings of moth larvcB, or drifted rubbish of various sorts, which had probably fallen upon the tangle of crossed lines, and had been gathered by the occupant into a mass, which, being agglutinated by the viscid threads, was finally shaped into a solid shelter, beneath which the spider rested and eventu- ally constructed her silken Fig. 283. Leaf roofed dome of dome. the Labyrinth spider. Labyrinthea is a most persistent dweller within her domicile. I think the female rarely leaves the confines of her web, limiting her life to living within her tent, spin- ning her orb and trapping flies upon it, and wan- dering back and forward in various duties of house- keeping and house repairing through her retite- larian maze. She may make excursions into ad- joining foliage and surroundings, as some other Orbweavers do; but, if so, I have never been able to find her abroad. She even spins her cocoons within the limits of her netted snare, and there her young are hatched and frequently occupy the site for a while after egress, and subsist upon the microscopic insects that are entangled upon the lines. The nesting habits of the Hunchback Epeira (Epeira gibberosa) have already been referred to (Chapter IX., page 154, Fig. 145) in connection with the mak- Gibbero- ^^s of horizontal orbs. The nest is simply a sa s Ham-, , . <• n i • i mo
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
