PROCUKING FOOD AND FEEDING. 



265 



and transporting the mum- 

 mied insect. If the day 

 happens to be a very good 

 day, viewed from the spi- 

 der's standpoint, or a bad 

 one from that of the flies ; 

 if the net site happens to 

 be one where insects are nu- 

 merous, the web will pre- 

 sent a very forlorn appear- 

 ance even early in the day, 

 and by the time evening has 

 come it will be but a tat- 

 tered remnant of the beau- 

 tiful object which caught 

 the morning dew and glis- 

 tened in the first sunbeams. 

 Fig. 239 is a sketch of 

 a portion of web of Epeira 

 strix, from which a freshly 

 captured insect had been 

 taken. The lines are drawn 

 very accurately from nature. 

 In the act of captur- 

 ing an insect it becomes 

 necessary for the spider to 

 piece together the parts of the web which are separated either by the 

 breakage of the insect's struggles or the intentional cutting of the spider 

 herself. This mending is done with great deftness and skill. The 

 broken parts are held together by one or more of the feet, usually 

 the hind feet. The claws on one side of the body grasp 

 Mending qj-^^ portion of the armature, while those on the other 

 grasp the opposite broken part. At the same time a 

 thread is thrown out from the spinnerets, is attached to 

 the margins of the fracture, and the rent is pieced together in a 

 manner almo.st impossible to describe, and indeed to observe at all. 

 Fig. 240. gQ rapidly is it accomplished. 



Fig. 240 is a. piece of a broken radius spliced by Epeira strix. 



Fig. 239. Section of Epeira's orb after an insect lias been captured. 



Broken 

 Webs. 



Piece of 

 broken 



radius ji represents the radius; L, L, lines which were run along either 



spliced ' ^ ' ' 



by Epei- 

 ra strix. 



side thereof; and W, a zigzag cross line by which the three straight 

 lines were warped together. At other times the angular points of 

 the fracture on either side are simply held together by one or more lines, 

 as the case requires, thus taking the place of the sundered radii and lost 

 spirals by which the segments had been held together. 



