. American spiders and their spinningwork. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits . rthy of careful study, for it gives a clue to the curious phenomenon whicli is now to be described. Her face and fore feet areUsing the ^Q^ j^^j. triangular snare. The trapline is held within theJ, , first two pairs of claws, which are placed neur each other (see Fig. 179, upper figure), and is drawn so tightly that every por-tion of the wedge shapedweb is perfectly taut, as rep-resented in Fig. 180. Uponapplying the lens to thes
. American spiders and their spinningwork. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits . rthy of careful study, for it gives a clue to the curious phenomenon whicli is now to be described. Her face and fore feet areUsing the ^Q^ j^^j. triangular snare. The trapline is held within theJ, , first two pairs of claws, which are placed neur each other (see Fig. 179, upper figure), and is drawn so tightly that every por-tion of the wedge shapedweb is perfectly taut, as rep-resented in Fig. 180. Uponapplying the lens to thespider as she thus hangswith back downward, it willbe seen that between thesecond pair of legs and thethird pair of legs, the lineis also taut. This is itscondition according to mostof my observations, but itseems that sometimes it isslightly slackened, as shownin the lower figure in the cut. (Fig. 179.) Carrying the lens along tothe short third pair of legs we see that they are bent at the knee, and theclaws approach each other at the trapline, which they firmly clasp. Glanc-ing at the fourth or hind pair of legs, it is observed that these are stretched. \ ISO. Hyptiotossnare drawn taut. THE TRIANGLE SPIDER : THE ORB SECTOR. 189 Coil of Slack Line. backward, and also clasp the trapline in the approximated claws. But be-tween the third and fourth pairs of legs the trapline presents a peculiarform. Instead of being drawn taut or held loosely, it has theappearance of a coil, and this in fact it is. About three-fourthsof an inch of the trapline, or a portion equal to four times theentire length of the spider, is rolled up above the spinnerets andthe hinder part of the abdomen, between the third and fourth pairs of legs.(Fig. 179, cl.) Behind the spider the trapline is in the same taut condi-tion that it presents in front of the spider. The net is now in perfect condition for operation. The whole frontpart of it, which includes the snare proper, is drawn taut in every cordand fi
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