. 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. 16 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR motion resembled that of a cat in the act of cleaning her face and the back part of her head and ears, after having licked her paw. Spiders may often be seen making their toilets in the early morning. The heavy dews discomfort them and they brush away the drops which cling to them. The same act may be observed after showers of rain, after feeding, and often after making a snare. The
. 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. 16 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR motion resembled that of a cat in the act of cleaning her face and the back part of her head and ears, after having licked her paw. Spiders may often be seen making their toilets in the early morning. The heavy dews discomfort them and they brush away the drops which cling to them. The same act may be observed after showers of rain, after feeding, and often after making a snare. The viscid beads and bits of flocculent matter from her own web some- times entangle with the hairs and spines of the legs, after a more than usually vigor- ous effort in capturing and swathing a vic- tim. This is so disagreeable that the cap- tive will be trussed up in the open space of the broken orb until the tidy aranead removes the offending matter. Sometimes after a hearty meal Arachne will make her fiq. i. fig. 2. toilet, thus reversing the human mode of F>°- t The Agricultural ant cleaning the _' ° tip of her abdomen. Fig. 2. Domicile spi- dressing before dinner. der cleansing her leg while suspended on One spider (Epeira vertebrata), captured a web- in a large glass tube while eating a fly, kept hold of her food, deliberately adjusted herself to her new position, spun out a few lines which *?air~. were rapidly attached to the sides of the glass, then turned over the^Feet and witn Sreat sanS ^roi(i c°ncmcled her meal. When she had finished she began cleaning her palps and feet, and gave me a fine opportunity to see the whole operation. I here observed that the mouth secreted freely a liquid which appeared to be a little mucilaginous, and that the paws were drawn through this. The stiff hairs upon the upper part and inner sides of the mandibles must materially aid the process of cleansing. The fangs are used as claspers in the process of cleansing. The leg is passed un
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectspiders, bookyear1889
