92 



AMERICAN SriDKliS AXl) TlIEIll SI'INNINGWOEK. 



lu'ing just two to one in 

 Ixitli cases. This rei^u- 

 larity of jtroportion add- 

 eil to my peq^lexity in 

 sct'king an explanation 

 for the a])pearanee. ^\'ily 

 should the s|iider have 

 made sueli a peeuliar 

 division in her spiral 



space 



? Was I on the 



Flu. 87 



EU'ect of rain upon an orb. Tlie open marg-inal space was 

 spun before, the remainder after, a shower. 



Effect of 

 Rain. 



tiaek of some new and in- 

 teresting departure from 

 the fixed habit of this 

 species? The snares were 

 figured and described, 

 and for a number of 

 years I .sought in vain 

 for an explanation of the 

 peculiarity, which, how- 

 ever, I saw but once again, and that in an Orchard spider's web. 



At last 1 found the explanation. On the honeysuckle and ami)elopsis 

 vines growing in considerable profusion in my manse premises, I had colon- 

 ized a number of Orbweavers, iiicluding several examples of Ar- 

 giope cophinaria. One morning in September, just after a warm 

 shower, while going the rounds of my colonists, I observed on 

 several orbs that a series of spiral lines had been spun from the margin 

 inward, covering about one-half the ordinary spiral space. No other beaded 

 sjyirals appeared ; and looking a little more carefully I observed that those 

 u})on the web were all greatly deltated and much more widely separated 

 than usual. In fact, I came to the conclusion that the Argiopes had been 

 engaged ui>on this part of their snare when overtaken by the shower; that 

 they had abandoned their work, fled 

 to their refuge, and in the meantime 

 the beating raindrops had twisted the 

 spiral lines already spun, until they 

 presented the appearance described, 

 and which is shown at Fig. 88. 



An hour thereafter I left my study 

 to reinspect the colonists upon the 

 vines. The rain had ceased ; the sun 

 was shining pleasantly, and I was sur- 

 prised to observe that the partly completed wiljs had now bet'u linished. 

 But instead of cutting away the portions originally wrought in, and whirh 

 had been partially disabled by the rain, the spiders had taken up tluir spin- 



Fiii. 88. Section of Argiope's orb interrupted by a 

 shower. 



