. 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. ARGIOPE AND HER KIUBONKD ORB. 97 Central Shield and Band diademata. Her orbs are frequently very large, but in this are wholly regu- lated by site. A good figure of one of tlicse orbs with details accurately drawn is given at Fig. 47. The peculiarity which first strikes the observer is the oval shield of white silk tissue which quite covers the hub. This is thickest and closest in the centre, and grows thinner and more open tow
. 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. ARGIOPE AND HER KIUBONKD ORB. 97 Central Shield and Band diademata. Her orbs are frequently very large, but in this are wholly regu- lated by site. A good figure of one of tlicse orbs with details accurately drawn is given at Fig. 47. The peculiarity which first strikes the observer is the oval shield of white silk tissue which quite covers the hub. This is thickest and closest in the centre, and grows thinner and more open towards the margin, where it gnuhially merges into the i-adii wliich are attached to it. In the adult spider it is usually about two inches long by one and a half wide.^ Attached to the shield above and be- low, and extending upward and downward between two radii, is a zigzag ribbon of white silk, an inch or more long and one-fourth of an inch or more wide. It traverses the whole central space and extends down- ward about two inches mi- til it is lost in the spirals of the lower half of the orb. These upper and lower ribbons vary in their de- gree of regular- The Use j^y. |},gy j^j.^, g^^j,. orally stretched between two ra- dii to which they are at- tached on either side; but sometimes they overspread three radii wholly or in part. Sometimes they are simply irregular i^atches or strips and often are wanting above the shield ; but the lower ribbon is rarely -wanting. This variety in the character of the shield appears to be influenced more or less by age. The shield is generally less prom- inent in the young than in the adult spider; nevertheless, it appears often on the orbs of the very young. This is also the case with the zigzag ribbon, and I have seen a perfectly marked zigzag both above and ' The shield represented at Fig. 52 measured two inches long and one and a half wide ; another example was one and three-fourths by one and one-half inches. of the Zigzag. Fig. 89. The orb
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
