652 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



before, and again springs her net ; and this I have seen repeated in 

 quick succession six times before the spider has ventured to make a 

 personal approach. She has already been carried a little way toward 

 her prey by the snapping of the net, for she always retains her hold 

 of the apex-line by her first two pairs of feet, and the third pair serves 

 to steady her as the slack-line slips between them. Advancing now to 

 the junction, she seems to ascertain the exact location of the fly by 

 pulling upon the radii. 1 Having decided, she runs along the chosen 

 radius, and sometimes, when the prey is small, or hopelessly entangled, 

 contents herself with pulling it up by means of the lines about it, and 

 carries it to her accustomed station to be eaten at her leisure. 



But more often she adopts a method of securing her prey which, 

 so far as I know, is peculiar to this genus, and involves the destruction 

 of her entire net. 



Before reaching the apex (A), she cuts with her jaws the apex-line, 

 but, as she keeps constant hold in front of the cut by her first and sec- 

 ond pairs of feet, and has a communication in the rear through the line 

 which most spiders always attach to a point behind them, she does 

 not fall, neither is the net loosened beyond a certain limit; it usually 

 seems to recoil about an inch ; this recoil tends to entangle the prey 

 like the original snaps of the net. The spider again advances, gathers 

 the radii together and cuts them all, still keeping the line out behind ; 

 again the net recoils and collapses. Again she advances and cuts the 

 radii ; the net is now hardly distinguishable as such, and is falling 

 together about the devoted fly; the spider now spreads her legs, 

 gathers the net between them and flings it like a blanket over her 

 victim ; struggles are now in vain ; but, " to make assurance doubly 

 sure," the spider grasps the mass, transfers it to her third pair, and 

 with them turns it over and over as a ball, hanging the while by her 

 front legs, and, with the hinder pair used now alternately, drawing out 

 from the expanded spinners broad sheets of silk which, relatively to 

 the power of the fly, are like steel bands upon a man. Having in this 

 way reduced the prey to a rounded ball, in which its limbs are hardly 

 distinguishable, the spider takes it in her jaws and mounts to her place. 



A single fly of ordinary size seems to occupy a whole day in the 

 eating. When finished, the remains are cast down as a pellet, so per- 

 fectlv deprived of moisture, that it is probable that this species, like 

 the JSTephila, and perhaps all Epeiridce, sucks out the gum of its old net 

 and reelaborates it in her organs for use in making a new one. 



Whether this peculiar economy is practised or not, it is certain 

 that the Hyptiotes often sacrifices its whole net in the capture of 

 a sino-le fly; and that the making of this net involves an amount 

 of labor and of skill which one would think not lightly to be thrown 



away. 



1 As with the JSTephila, and perhaps all other geometrical spideTs, this species seems 

 to perceive light only, and not to see objects distinctly. 



