158 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



mill races, I recall one such site at Bellwood in the Allegheny Mountains, 

 where very many Stilt spiders were thus located, and had found it so 

 admirable a feeding ground that they had grown to large proportions. 

 Some of the orbs were fourteen inches in diameter. (Fig. 150.) 



With this fondness for the water are associated some most interesting 

 habits which especially adapt the Stilt spider for its favorite site. One of 



these was observed in individuals of the Bellwood colony above 

 Walkmg- nientioned. The webs were stretched between boards laid on 

 _yf , narrow beams as a gangway across the mill race near the sluice 



gate, and also from these boards to the sides of the race itself. 

 While studying them I was often compelled to disturb the spiders. They 



Fig. 150. The Stilt spider's web beneath logs. 



ran from the centre of their large orbs and took shelter on the sides of 

 the cross beams or underneath the boards. If still further disturbed, they 

 would sometimes drop Ijy a dragline from the lower surface of the i)lank 

 and hang with their legs stretched out straight, fore and aft, in the charac- 

 teristic position already described as assumed by them when resting along a 

 branch or other surface. In this posture they would hang motionless for 

 some time. (See Fig. 151, left hand of cut.) 



On one occasion, while attempting to seize one of these individuals, 

 she dropped downward suddenly for several feet. I was not suri)rised at 

 this motion, for it is the one resorted to by alarmed Orbweavers when 



