218 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



special exigencies. Most of the above examples and perhaps all are illus- 

 trations of this. Another case in point was furnished by a Shamrock 



spider, Epeira trifolium, that 



Fig. 205. Furrow spider's extemporized den of sawdust. 



and proceeded to spin her snare directly 

 below the opening. She attached her trap- 

 line to the hub, and thus in her hanging 

 home continued to wait for prey.^ (Fig. 

 204, page 216.) 



Another somew'hat similar case of adap- 

 tation in nest making was due to an acci- 

 dent in the environment of the web. A 

 half-grown Epeira strix had wov- 

 en a snare in the hollow of a tree 

 (at New Lisbon, Ohio), within two 

 feet of the ground. A colony of Pennsyl- 

 vania carpenter ants (Camponotus Penn- 

 sylvanicus) had quarters in the tree, and a 

 squad of black workers were busy excavat- 

 ing their wooden galleries. These dumped 

 their chijipings from openings just above 

 the spider's orb, whose viscid spirals re- 

 tained a goodly quantity of the brown 

 sawdust. In course of time a ball of chip- 

 pings as big as a walnut had accumulated, 



A Saw- 

 dust Nest. 



Adapta- 

 tion. 



exhibited a remarkable ability 



to adapt her domi- 



Special ^jjg ^q ygj.y peculiar 



circumstances. She 

 had placed her nest 

 in the curled leaf of a grape 

 vine, which becoming detached 

 from the .stem fell and entan- 

 gled within the lines of the orb 

 beneath. Whereupon the oc- 

 cupant, in nowise disconcerted, 

 adjusted her tent, stayed it 

 above and at the sides witli 

 guy lines, braced it beneath. 



Fig. 206. A blockaded path. 



' The incident occurred at Vineland, New Jersey, and notes and measurements for the 

 figure woro furnished me by Mrs. Treat. The incident is also recorded in that author's 

 " My Garden Pets." 



