. 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. THE EAY SPIDEK AND HER SNABE. 199. Fio. 192. Ray spider seat^ ed upon her foot basket, back upward. Figs. 187 and 189, at the point where tlie rays converge, grasping the axes with the four hind feet. She has the posterior part of her abdomen toward her snare, thus reversing tlie attitude of all her tribe. Moreover, her back is turned upward. The two front feet seize the trai)line and draw it taut. Then, jirecisely as a sailor
. 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. THE EAY SPIDEK AND HER SNABE. 199. Fio. 192. Ray spider seat^ ed upon her foot basket, back upward. Figs. 187 and 189, at the point where tlie rays converge, grasping the axes with the four hind feet. She has the posterior part of her abdomen toward her snare, thus reversing tlie attitude of all her tribe. Moreover, her back is turned upward. The two front feet seize the trai)line and draw it taut. Then, jirecisely as a sailor pulls upon a rope, " hand over hand," tlie little arachnid's feet move along the trap- line, one over another. As she moves, going, of course, away from her net, the axes of the rays, " centre of the snare bears inward, the other parts are stretched taut, and the web at last has taken the form of a cone or funnel as at Figs. 190, 191. In this position the snares continually suggested an umbrella with ribs reversed by the wind and the cov- ering stripped loose from the top of the handle. Fig. 190 gives a side view of the web when thus bowed or drawn taut; another snare is shown at Fig. 191, as seen from behind. These snares were located within cavi- ties formed by the dropping away of stones from the ruined dam breast in which they were first discovered. In the example shown at Fig. 191 the spider has moved quite down the trapline to the surface of the little twig projecting into the cavity to which it is attached. It will thus be seen that the snare is more or less a plane surface, or more or less conical, according to the position of the animal upon the trapline and the degree of tension thereof. II. When an insect strikes the snare, the spider has two modes of operat- ing. The first somewhat resembles that of the ordinary Orbweaver, in that the insect is simply permitted to en- tangle itself, and is then taken, swathed, re- th^'=t ^^^ turned to the centre, and
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
