ORANGE ARGIOPE 



into the orbweb, and so into the claws of the sentinel 

 ogress. Or, should the insect be a raiding wasp, it may 

 be fended off; or, at least, by the sharp contact it 

 signals the alarm and puts Argiope upon her guard 



ARGIOPE WEAVING THE COCOON 



for defence or warns her to escape. The latter she 

 often does by slipping dexterously behind her orb, 

 thus putting her thick shield between herself and her 

 foe. 



A few days later you are back in the aranead settle- 

 ment, and miss Orange Argiope from her seat and snare. 

 Mousing a bit through the bushes, you find her diligently 

 swathing a silken ball the bigness of a walnut, swung to 

 a small sheeted canopy well lashed to the surrounding 

 stems and leaves of a high stalk of wild field flowers. 

 This is her egg-cocoon. She strides around and around 

 it, changing her course at every round, drawing out, 

 the meanwhile, ribbons of white spinning-stuff. These 

 she eases up into half or quarter inch loops by slacking 

 her abdomen, and beats them down or spreads them out 

 with her spinnerets upon the surface. Thus she man- 

 ages to enwrap her pretty casket evenly; and when it is 



done she leaves it hung amid a maze of crossed lines, 



251 



