NESTING HABITS AND PROTECTIVE ARCHITECTURE. 



301 



Begin- 



placcd upon the vines, she spent a considerable length of time in wan- 

 dering back and forward over the leaves, climbing upward all the while, 

 never downward, which may be said to be a common habit of 

 spiders under such circumstances. Finally, she reached a spot 

 j^ . well to the top of the vine covered arbor, which seemed to suit 



her. Several leaves, closely clustered together, drooped over in 

 such a way as to form a natural shelter, and underneath these the spider 

 began arranging her tent. She passed backw^ard and forward under the 

 surfaces of the several leaves in the cluster, stretching lines from one to 

 the other in the manner already described. Her motions seemed to be 

 really aimless. She appeared to be guided by no special principle in ex- 

 tending any single thread, and it was difficult to observe what bearing her 

 work might have upon the end manifestly in view. After a long time 

 spent in this kind of spinning, a confused mass 

 of lines was left upon the upper part of the m- 

 ner surfaces of the clustered leaves. 



In the meantime, however, the process had 

 evidently drawn the leaves somewhat together, at 

 least had compacted them into a closer cluster, 

 holding one against the other so tightly that 

 they w^ere not separated by the currents of wind. 

 The spider then placed tlie end of her body, the 

 abdomen, against this maze of threads. The de- 

 tails of her behavior thereafter were not accu- 

 rately marked, but the substance of her method 

 appeared to be as follows : she pushed against 

 the lines with her abdomen, moving the spin- 

 nerets back and forward at the same time, until 

 a slight concavity was formed, and the mass be- 

 gan to assume the shape of an inverted bowl. 

 The same movements that produced this effect, by pulling upon and tight- 

 ening the weft, drew the leaves still more closely together, and forced tliem 

 into the shape of the clustered leaf nest represented at Fig. 254. 



From this shelter the spider departed, and proceeded to spin her orbic- 

 ular snare, carrying her trapline into her den, from which she awaited, 

 as usual, the trapping of her prey. In the course of time, had 

 the spider not been disturbed, the mass of crossed linos would 

 have been reduced to a texture of close white silk, and the whole 

 would have been moulded into a dome like tent as a lining to the inner 

 surface of the leaves. Further on, the margins of this lining would have 

 been stretched out towards tlie tips of the leaves, the edges of the leaves 

 would have been agglutinated or sewed in the manner above described, 

 and thus the nest would have been completed. 



An interesting illustration of the method of sewing was given by a 



Fig. 277. Last stages of nest 

 making. 



Uphol- 

 stery. 



