ARANEIDA. 



503 



indicates the possession of highly-developed instincts. The so-called 

 vagrant spiders do not, as a rule, form nets to catch their prey, but 

 use the secretion of the spinning glands only to line their hiding- 

 places and to make their ovisacs. They catch their prey either by 

 running after it (fig. 406, a), or by springing on it (fig. 406, 6). 

 Other Spiders (fig. 406, c) are indeed able to run quickly, but they 

 render the task of catching prey easier by making webs and nets, on 

 which they move about with great dexterity, while other animals, 

 especially insects, become very easily entangled. The webs them- 

 selves are of various kinds, and constructed with more or less skill j 



Fig. 406. 



Tegnfaria domestic,} 



they are either delicate and thin and formed of irregularly arranged 

 threads, or they are of a felt-like quality and extended horizontaily 

 or again, they may have the form of vertically placed wheel-shaped 

 nets ; in this case they consist of concentric and radial threads, which 

 are arranged with wonderful regularity, the radial threads meeting 

 in a central point. Tubular or funnel-shaped hiding-places for the 

 spider are often found near the webs. Most spiders rest in the 

 daytime, and go out for prey in the dusk or in the night-time 

 Many vagrant spiders, however, hunt in the day-time, even when 

 the sun is shininsr. 



