. American spiders and their spinningwork. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits . is very common. This tent is swung in various positions, according to the location of the spider, andDomed ^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ have a screen of tented leaves. At other times, as I have often seen with Zilla x-notata, in New England, theshelter is spun underneath leaves, and occasionally the leaves are used asa protection, without a very decided woven tent. On the whole, my obser-vations of the habit of Zilla show that it is not strong
. American spiders and their spinningwork. A natural history of the orbweaving spiders of the United States, with special regard to their industry and habits . is very common. This tent is swung in various positions, according to the location of the spider, andDomed ^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ have a screen of tented leaves. At other times, as I have often seen with Zilla x-notata, in New England, theshelter is spun underneath leaves, and occasionally the leaves are used asa protection, without a very decided woven tent. On the whole, my obser-vations of the habit of Zilla show that it is not strongly inclined to availitself of the protection of leaves in the manner of Epeira trifolium andothers of that group. However, it occupies its home, and uses its traj)-line in the manner of the liest making Epeiroids. NESTING HABITS AND PROTECTIVE ARCHITECTURE. 303 Closely related to Zilla in the character of its snare is Epeira thaddeus,but in this species the nest making habit appears to be more strongly de-veloped. It may often be found nested in the angle of a dooror window, or other like situation, Nest of Epeira thaddeus. on the outhouses of farms and. Fig. 278. Cylindrical nest of Epeira thad-deus, spun in the angle of a door. ruial buildings. Here it spins awhite silken tube of close texture, which isgenerally a quite exact cylinder. In thisrespect it differs from the nests of Zilla andEpeira triaranea, which are almost habituallyin the shape of an inverted bowl or cylindrical tent of Thaddeus varies inlength from three-fourths of an inch to oneand one-quarter inch, the latter being thelength of the nest represented at Fig. cylinder is stayed by a series of linesattached to it at various parts and stretchedto numerous points in the surrounding sur-face, thus holding it intact. Within the cylinder Thaddeus sits holdingher trapline, through which all agitation upon her sectoral orb is com-municated. She has learned, however, the value of screening her cylindr
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