. 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. Fig. 97. Rudimentary web of female Argiope. preservation in nature of the individual and even the species. The wings do not appear to impair tlie efficacy of tiie orb as a snare for trajiping the natural prey of the spider. Such insects break upon and through the web with an elan bred of un- consciousness of danger quite, different from the perceptible caution and hesitation which mark the conscious approach of a hymenopterous
. 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. Fig. 97. Rudimentary web of female Argiope. preservation in nature of the individual and even the species. The wings do not appear to impair tlie efficacy of tiie orb as a snare for trajiping the natural prey of the spider. Such insects break upon and through the web with an elan bred of un- consciousness of danger quite, different from the perceptible caution and hesitation which mark the conscious approach of a hymenopterous foe. In the snare figured above (Fig. 89), the number of radii was twenty-five. The )uimber of spirals in the lower part of the orb was twenty-six; in the upper part it did not exceed nine. The hub was thus placed well above the geometrical centre of the orb. This snare was spun by a female colonized upon a young tree. After the ordinary preliminary prospecting, she spun a rudimentary web, Fig. 97, consisting of a few .perpendicular lines looped and crossed, upon which she hung in the natural posture. She remained thus until evening and then spun her characteristic orb. This manner of resting u])on a few straggling ratlins is quite habitual. The male of Cophi- naria appears very small by the side of his adult, mate. He is not very active in his predatory habits after ma- turity; at least the snares upon which I have always found him appear to be poorly adapted to the capture of insects, although I have occasionally seen a fiy entangled in one of them. The drawing of one of these rudiment- ary webs, given at Fig. 98, was made from a pencil sketcli kindly furnished me several years ago by Mr. Em- erton, and is a fair representa- tion of the ordinary character of the web upon which I have found the male Coph- inaria. It may be noticed that the snare quite closely resembles the meshed hub spun by the female before the shield is made, and which is characteristic in most orbs of the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
