148 AMERICAN SPIDERS 



This American ogre-faced spider, Deinopis spinosus, is a slender 

 creature, which hangs from a small web of dry silk on very long, 

 stiltlike legs during its casting operations. When mature, the female 

 is about two thirds of an inch long, and frequently has as .a notable 

 feature an abdomen armed above and near the middle with short 

 projections. The male is smaller and more slender than his mate, 

 and his thin legs are at least three times as long as his whole body. 

 A dark band running the length of the abdomen below, and a few 

 lines and spots above, are the only distinctive pattern on the other- 

 wise drably marked bodies of these spiders. 



During daylight hours the ogre-faced spiders are usually to be 

 found pressed flat against the bark of a branch near their snares. 

 They assume a characteristic position: the forelegs are stretched out 

 in front along a twig, while the hind legs grasp the twig and hold 

 the body firmly. The resemblance of this spider to a bud, spine, or 

 some other natural irregularity in the bark is a most striking one, 

 and must certainly pay dividends by giving the creature some im- 

 munity from predators. Completely quiescent during the day, 

 Deinopis rouses to action at sundown, moves into the small tangle 

 of dry silken lines, and prepares its capturing web. 



Conrad Ackerman has described in fine detail how Menneus, an 

 African ogre-faced spider, spins her web and captures her prey. 

 The animal lays down a horizontal foundation line, and from this 

 stretches parallel vertical lines down and across to outline a rec- 

 tangular base, all of dry silk. Across this base she spins a series of 

 transverse bands of sticky silk, which she cards from her cribellum 

 in the normal manner. The result of this latter operation is a small 

 reticle of sticky lines about the dimensions of a postage stamp, 

 which Mennens grasps in her four long front legs while with her 

 hind legs she holds herself securely to the dry lines of the web. In 

 this position, hanging back-downward, the spider waits for a night- 

 flying insect usually a moth to arrive within the limits of her 

 casting area. (See Text Fig. 4, F.) 



When her prey comes within reach, Menneus suddenly 



stretches the elastic snare to its full expansion, which appears 

 to be five or six times its size when closed, and hurls herself for- 

 ward, throwing the net over the moth and closing it down upon 

 it with her four front legs. The moth is helpless and the spider 

 at once bites it. After waiting a few moments, she carefully 

 extracts it from the web and the insect does not move, probably 



