76 The Life of the Spider 



interspersed with numerous contacts, a segment 

 of the sheet is obtained, of a very accurate 

 texture. When this is done, the Spider moves 

 a Httle along a circular line and the loom works 

 in the same manner on another segment. 



The silk disk, a sort of | hardly concave 

 paten, now no longer receives aught from the 

 spinnerets in its centre ; the marginal belt 

 alone increases in thickness. The piece thus 

 becomes a bowl-shaped porringer, surrounded 

 by a wide, flat edge. 



The time for the laying has come. With one 

 quick emission, the viscous, pale-yellow eggs 

 are laid in the basin, where they heap together 

 in the shape of a globe which projects largely 

 outside the cavity. The spinnerets are once 

 more set going. With short movements, as 

 the tip of the abdomen rises and falls to weave 

 the round mat, they cover up the exposed hemi- 

 sphere. The result is a pill set in the middle of 

 a circular carpet. 



The legs, hitherto idle, are now working. 

 They take up and break off one by one the 

 threads that keep the round mat stretched on 

 the coarse supporting network. At the same 



