WEAVERS OF ROUND WEBS. 



119 



congeners, i. c., the abdomen more nearly api)roaches a globular shape. In 

 Massachusetts I found one specimen with a white abdomen ; two with yellow 

 abdomens ; one with bright strawberry or burnt sienna marks ; one Tri- 

 foliuni that was blackish, the markings on the abdomen being white or 

 silvery. These were all found in nests of several leaves, fastened together 

 in the ordinary ways. A similar variety in coloring characterized specimens 

 found in huckleberry patch- 

 es and wooded hillsides just 

 back of the bay, at Niantic, 

 Connecticut. 



In habit and spinning- 

 work Trifolium resembles 

 Insularis, living in a curled 

 leaf with a tra])line attach- 

 ment to her snare. ^ Hentz 

 in his description, based 

 upon a specimen from 

 Maine, says that the si)i- 

 der is found in houses and 

 near dwellings. Mrs. Mary 

 Treat reports the same 

 characteristic of the indi- 

 viduals seen by her in New 

 Hampshire. On the con- 

 trary I have rarely found 

 a specimen except in the 

 open fields or among shrub- 

 bery and often quite remote 

 from human habitations. 



A summer (1888) spent 

 on Cape Ajin, Massachu- 

 setts, gave me an admir- 

 able opportunity to ob- 

 serve the habits of this 

 species. Those who are 



familiar with New England hedge rows know how they are 

 formed ; granite boulders and blocks, brought from the meadow 

 or elsewhere, are piled along the boundaries between field ami 

 road into low stone walls or fences. On either side of these 

 walls grow in unchecked i)rofusion the native i)lants and wild flowers of 

 New England. There are shrubs of various sorts, golden rod, great ferns, 



Fig. 107. Orb and nest of the Shamrock spider, Epeira trifolium. 



Tents in 



Hedge 



Row^s. 



^ Fi":. 107, mcapurenients : Orb, 14 x 14 inches; hub, 1 inch; notched zone, i x i inch, 



irregularly iilacnl ; 4 nutclu-f^ below ; cciitral space nearly '■> iiii-bes. Vini'laml. X. J., on 

 the bank of a run. 



