CHAPTER VIII. 

 COMPOSITE SNARES AND SECTORAL ORBS. 



I. 



IN the following chapter I have placed the spinningwork of two groups 

 of Orbweavers that appear to me, in spite of some marked differences, to 

 have many points in common, namely, those which habitually make a 

 composite snare and those which spin an orbweb, lacking one sector. Com- 

 posite snares combine the round web of Orbweavers with the netted maze 

 of lines which marks the typical Retitelarian. Two spiders which most 



prominently associate with their 

 own snare that of the Lineweavers 

 are Epeira labyrinthea and E. tri- 

 aranea. Of these two, the habit 

 is most permanently fixed in the 

 former, which is rarely, 



e a y- .^ without its maze, 

 rinth 

 Spider. while with the latter it 



is sometimes very scant. 

 Triaranea's orb is habitually sec- 

 toral, Labyrinthea's snare inclines 

 to the orbicular, but, as will be 

 presently shown, appears to be a 

 transition form between the orbic- 

 ular and sectoral. In the meth- 

 ods on which it is constructed it 

 properly is grouped with the sec- 

 toral orbmakers. 



The web of the Labyrinth spi- 

 der is perhaps the most remark- 

 able example of the composite 

 snare. Its orb is spun at one side 

 of a mass of variously crossed 

 lines, designated as the maze or labyrinth, from which it is separated 

 by a small but quite distinct space usually of about an inch. To the 

 centre of the orb is attached the trapline, a ray of several threads which 



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FIG. 114. Snare of the Labyrinth spider, seen from behind. 

 . The leaf tent is shown in the maze. 



