220 



THE COMMON SPIDERS 



center, where it finds the prey and takes it out of the web to its 

 perch. The making of this web has been described by Wilder 

 in the Popular Science Monthly in 1875. The cross threads are 

 made separately, beginning with the longest. They are begun 



on the upper ray, the spider walking toward 

 the center, combing out the threads with its 

 hind legs, until it reaches a point where it 

 can cross to the next. It is found all over 

 the country, usually in the pine woods. 



Filistata hibernalis. — One of the most com- 

 mon house spiders in the southern states, 

 making webs in corners and on walls and 

 fences (fig. 501). The body is about half 

 an inch long, but the legs are so long and 

 stout that it appears much larger. The 

 first leg, which is the longest, is about twice 

 the length of the body. The palpi are as 

 long as the cephalothorax and thicker than 

 in most spiders. The maxillae are inclined 

 toward each other so that they meet in 

 front of the labium. The cephalothorax 

 is flat and narrowed in front between the 

 palpi, and the mandibles are small. The 

 eyes are in one group, close together. 

 The color is dark gray, without any mark- 

 ings, and the whole body is covered with 

 fine short hairs. The calamistrum is very 

 short, and near the base of the fourth meta- 

 tarsus, where it can easily be seen. The 

 web is like that of Dictyna, radiating irregularly from the spider's 

 hiding place, and when this is on a flat wall forms sometimes 

 a circle a foot or more in diameter, which becomes filled with 

 dust and is enlarged and thickened as the spider grows. 



Fig. 501. Filistata hiber- 

 nalis, enlarged twice. 



