316 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



Fig. 291. The nest of Lycosa carolinensis, built from the needle 

 like leaves of a pine tree. 



medicinalis (or Durhami), whose web is so frequently found in cellars and 

 shaded outhouses, the same fact meets us. There we see the thick sheet, 

 not spread out broadly as in the case of Agalena, but rather pouched ; thus 

 forming a good receptacle for dropping insects, who are apt to roll easily 



into the little round open- 

 ing at the apex of the 

 snare. Above this open- 

 ing is spun a short tubu- 

 lar tower, which also is 

 prolonged a little way be- 

 neath the opening. With- 

 in this peculiar structure 

 the spider protects herself, 

 precisely as in the case of 

 the Orbweavers above de- 

 scribed. (See Fig. 221, 

 Chapter XIV.) 



If we pass next to the 



Saltigrades we find the same fact. The jumping spiders, whose bright 



forms and animated movements are familiar around our houses and 



yards, spin for their domicile thick white silken tubes, which 



,' differ very little in form and structure from those of the orb- 



weaving Furrow spider or the tubeweaving Drassid, Disdera, or 



Segestria. (Fig. 293.) 



The Lineweavers, although such close neighbors to the Orbweavers in 

 structure, and having remarkable points of approach in certain features of 

 the snare, are somewhat defective in points of architectural resemblance as 

 far as the nesting tube is concerned. But they have some striking repre- 

 sentatives of the prevailing type. There 

 is, for example, the little lineweaving 

 Theridium zelotypum which I have 

 often observed along the trails in Adirondack for- 

 ests, living in a little tent whose roof was the 

 gathered leaves of a young pine tree, and whose 

 interior was a silken tube or bell shaped dome 

 quite resembling the nest of the Insular spider. 

 Within this tent the mother Theridium domiciles, 

 and with her dwell a number of her young. (See 

 Fig. 294.) 



When the habits of American Lineweavers 

 shall be studied more carefully, it will probably be found that Zelotypum 

 is not alone in the matter of nidification. At least, we know that among 

 the European Theridioids there are some species who almost equal the 

 Epciroids in the perfection of their nests. Theridium nervosum is one 



Line- 

 weavers. 



Fig. 292. Tubular nest of Drassus. 



