306 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



Leafy 

 Roof. 



In some cases the concavities of the leaf are utihzed, and the spider, 

 creeping within them, finds an additional shelter, and makes such con- 

 cavities the site for the location of her silken dome. 

 (Figs. 284, 285.) Labyrinthea is able to avail her- 

 self of other roofing material than a leaf, 

 for I have more than once found her snare 

 in the pine forests of New Jersey, having 

 in the centre of the maze a mass of miscellaneous 

 material, such as fine sawdust, or the castings of 

 moth larvse, or drifted rubbish of various sorts, which 

 had probably fallen upon the tangle of crossed lines, 

 and had been gathered by the occupant into a mass, 

 which, being agglutinated 

 by the viscid threads, w-as 

 finally shaped into a solid 

 shelter, beneath which the 

 spider rested and eventu- 

 ally constructed her silken 



Fig. 283. Leaf roofed dome of domC. 



the Labyrinth spider. Labyrinthea is a most 



persistent dweller within her domicile. I think 

 the female rarely leaves the confines of her web, 

 limiting her life to living within her tent, spin- 

 ning her orb and trapping flies u];)on it, and wan- 

 dering back and forward in various duties of house- 

 keeping and house repairing through her retite- 

 larian maze. She may make excursions into ad- 

 joining foliage and surroundings, as some other 

 Orb weavers do; but, if so, I have never been able 

 to find her abroad. She even spins her cocoons 

 within the limits of her netted snare, and there 

 her young are hatched and frequently occupy the 

 site for a while after egress, and subsist upon the microscopic insects that 



are entangled upon the lines. 



The nesting habits of the Hunchback Epeira (Epeira 

 gibberosa) have already been referred to (Chapter IX., 

 page 154, Fig. 145) in connection with the mak- 

 ers of horizontal orbs. The nest is simply a 



Fig. 284. Leafy canopy of Laby- 

 rinthea, hung within the maze. 



Gibbero- 



sa's Ham- , , . r i i • i 



, hammock or net ot crossed fines, commonly 



Nest. stretched between the edges of a leaf, which 



are pulled up so as to make a slight concav- 

 ity. Beneath this spinningwork the spider suspends her- 

 self, back downward, after the fashion of the Theridioids and the spinners 

 of horizontal orbwebs. Her face is outward toward her snare, and the feet 



Fig. 285. A den in a 

 leaf, o, trapline. 



