CHAPTER XIX. 



THE GENESIS OF SNARES. 



It now remains to trace the relations which exist between the various 

 forms of spinningwork treated in detail or alluded to in this volume. 

 In attempting this I am well aware that great difficulties lie 

 Spinning-- j^^ ^j^g path, and am not unmindful of the fact that one is in- 

 worK: e- ^.^inQd in such a task to give greater or less play to imagination. 

 Moreover, the limited knowledge of the spinning habits of our 

 spider fauna hinders me from tracing the connecting links that would 

 perhaps show intimate relations between industries which now seem widely- 

 separated. Nevertheless, one cannot well resist the effort. 



In considering the natural relationships of snares it is at least conven- 

 ient to proceed from the standpoint of a gradual evolution or development 

 of the spinning habit. In justice to my own belief, it is proper 

 A Hypo- ^Q g^r^^g j^i^a^ such, a course is entirely hypothetical. As far as I 

 ttietical -j^r^yQ jjggj-^ .r^iyiQ ^Q gvAsp the subject and reach conclusions there- 

 point from, there appears to be no ground, either in the habit of ex- 

 isting fauna or in the records of geologic ages, to justify the as- 

 sertion that any one tribe of spiders has been the parental stock out of 

 which the others have proceeded, or that any one form of spinningwork 

 has been the germinal form from which all the varied aranead industries 

 have had a natural and gradual growth. 



Nevertheless, in that scientific use of the imagination which is a most 

 advantageous and often a necessary factor in exhibiting the relations of 

 things, it is proper for one to so far take advantage of current beliefs as 

 to express certain relationships, which very clearly and beautifully ap- 

 pear, as though they had originated through diverging or interblending 

 lines from one common source. Doubtless many of my readers, certainly 

 most of my scientific friends, will think that my tentative standpoint ex- 

 presses the real state of things ; and if the truth rests with them I shall 

 be glad to thus help them make it appear. 



As the starting point of our first comparative view 1 take the Trapline. 

 The simplest use of the thread or combination of threads thus denomi- 

 nated may be seen in the habits of such a spider as Epeira strix. This 

 aranead, like the majority of hor congeners, forsakes her web during the 



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