106 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNING WORK. 



FIG. 97. Rudimentary web of female Argiope. 



preservation in nature of the individual 

 and even the species. The wings do not 

 appear to impair the efficacy of the orb as 

 a snare for trapping the natural prey of 

 the spider. Such insects break upon and 

 through the web with an elan bred of un- 

 consciousness of danger quite different 

 from the perceptible caution and hesitation 

 which mark the conscious approach of a 

 hymenopterous foe. 



In the snare figured above (Pig. 89), 

 the number of radii was twenty-five. The 

 number of spirals in the lower part of the 

 orb was twenty-six; in the upper part it 

 did not exceed nine. The hub was thus 

 placed well above the geometrical centre of 

 the orb. This snare was spun by a female 

 colonized upon a young tree. After the 

 ordinary preliminary prospecting, she spun 

 a rudimentary web, Fig. 97, consisting of a few perpendicular lines looped 

 and crossed, upon which she hung in the natural posture. She remained 

 thus until evening and then spun her characteristic orb. This manner of 

 resting upon a few straggling ratlins is quite habitual. The male of Cophi- 

 naria appears very small by the side of his adult mate. He is not very 

 active in his predatory habits after ma- 

 turity ; at least the snares upon which 

 I have always found him appear to be 

 poorly adapted to the capture of insects, 

 although I have occasionally seen a fly 

 entangled in one of them. 



The drawing of one of these rudiment- 

 ary webs, given at Fig. 98, was made from 

 a pencil sketch kindly furnished 



th 6 M ? me severa *l y ears a g by Mr. Em- 

 erton, and is a fair representa- 

 tion of the ordinary character of the web 

 upon which I have found the male Coph- 

 inaria. It may be noticed that the snare 

 quite closely resembles the meshed hub 

 spun by the female before the shield is 

 made, and which is characteristic in most 

 orbs of the genus Epeira. However, there 

 is a good deal of variety in the form of 



* FIG. 98. Male of Argiope cophmaria on a 



the male webs, and some of them are much rudimentary web. 



