214 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



Meta's 



Counter 



poise. 



Fig. 203. Meta merianae, with a counter- 

 poised snare. (After Parona.) 



found lifted above the ground 

 inally l)een in the same po 

 been raised b}' tho-chxsticity 

 the wind, tlie motion of the 

 Another observation has 

 aly, and recently communi 

 ity in the Habits 

 he ob-served in a 

 of Meta merianae, 

 ficial gallery exca 

 customary with nets woven 

 of lateral lines, which were 

 vault, and were prolonged 

 was about sixteen inches 

 posed to the sweep of the 

 outer margin to the ground 

 seven centimetres) in length, 

 fragment of soil identical 

 large as a seed of Indian 

 soil was compact and heavy, 

 poise, holding the web fully 



' piece of wood or oth- 

 er like material, but 

 commonly is a small 

 pebble or gravel from the 

 ])atli. In one such case, 

 when he had taken away 

 the counterpoise, he saw 

 the spider descend by the ver- 

 tical thread to ascertain Mdiat 

 liad happened, and, having ar- 

 rived at the ground, she fastened 

 (he line to another pebble. 



It will be observed in tliis case 

 that tlie pcbl)le to which the thread 

 was fastened laj' upon the ground, 

 and this fact itself compels me to 

 doul)t Professor Pavesi's conclusion. I 

 cannot resist the thought that in this, 

 as in other cases where the pebble was 

 and acting as a counterpoise, it had orig- 

 sition upon the garden path, and had 

 of the thread, the mechanical action of 

 spider, and tlie swaying of the trees, 

 been made by Professor Parona of It- 

 catcd in a paper entitled, " A Peculiar- 

 of Meta merianaj."! In October, 1886, 

 villa at Baccione, on Lake Orta, a web 

 .spun in the entrance of a short arti- 

 vatcd in solid earth. The orb, as is 

 in like positions, was stayed by a series 

 suspended upward against the arching 

 downward toward the walk. The snare 

 wide (forty centimetres), and was ex- 

 wind. The thread prolonged from the 

 was about twenty-seven inches (sixty- 

 At the end of this line was luing a. 

 with tliat of the vault, and about as 

 corn (di grano turco). (Fig. 203.) The 

 and the pellet acted as a counter- 

 extended, so that it was sufficiently 



' Partirolarita nei Costumi delta Meta 

 del Museo t'ivico di Stor. Nat. Di Genova, 



meriana', Scop, del Prof. Corrado Parona. Annali 

 Ser. 2, Vol. ^■II., 1889, pages 250-5, Tav. VI. 



