NESTING HABITS AND PROTECTIVE ARCHITECTURE. 299 



The nesting habits of all the Angulata group of Epeira known to me 

 are like those of the Insular and Shamrock spiders. I have always found 

 Epeira bicentennaria and E. sylvatica within rolled leaf nests 

 The An- precisely resembling those heretofore described and figured. This 

 ?r ^ ^ group is distributed over the entire continent, and may be dis- 

 tmguished by two conical processes, more or less prominent, one 

 on each side of the anterior part of the abdomen. The " Diadem spider, 

 the well known Epeira diademata of Europe, heads the group, and may 

 have been an importation in the vast trains of human emigrants who 

 have sought our shores. The far western Epeira gemma, and Epeira 

 cinerea well scattered over the Northeast, belong to the same group. All 

 have probably the same nesting habits, and are closely related structurally. 

 The brief descriptions of the nests of Epeira diademata, quadrata, 

 apoclisa, and other European and exotic species made by Blackwall, 

 Menge, and Walckenaer, for example, permit us to assert their 

 tt'^vT ° identity in nesting habit with American .species. It will proba- 

 bly be found that this characteristic is cosmopolitan, and that 

 all nest making species of Orbweavers throughout the world have sub- 

 stantially the same architectural methods within affiliated groups, and 

 that their tents, dens, domiciles, or nests closely resemble each other, the 

 variations depending largely ujion the nesting site and the material avail- 

 able for manipulation and underspinning. 



IV. 



It is difficult to ob.serve all the steps in the construction of a leaf 

 nest, inasmuch as the process is not continuous from beginning to com- 

 pletion, but is gradual and accumulative. There is certainly a 

 How difference in this respect; some species, like Insularis, having a 



■D .,. stronger disposition to provide a well protected nest from the 



outstart of any settlement in a new site. But many spiders con- 

 tent themselves with a comi^aratively rude shelter at first, and, as occasion 

 or disposition may prompt, proceed to add to their domicile. 



At one time the leaf or leaves will be drawn closer together ; at an- 

 other, the roof will be overspun with fresh silk ; again, the supporting 

 lines will be strengthened, and the silken approaches extended, 

 T^® or the outlying warp receive additional woof, so closing up the 



Gradual ^^'^^^l^ o^ the tent. Thus the nest is likety to be perfect in pro- 

 portion to the time that the occupant has been upon the prem- 

 ises. In the intervals of trapping, eating, and snare spinning, the aranead 

 architect occupies herself in adding to her house and perfecting its ap- 

 pointments. 



Nevertheless, one may have opportunities for seeing the spider's archi- 

 tectural methods, and by piecing together various observations can know 

 the entire jDrocess. I have been favored with several views of the various 



