168 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



Orbitelarise is vertical, but the corresponding section of the web of the Bas- 

 ilica spider, Fig. 13, d d, might be properly described as horizontal, or 

 rather as a blending of the horizontal with the vertical. In other 



T * 1 j-3 



.i'jvf^r % words, if a horizontal orb attached at the circumference in the 

 torum usua l wa y were to be lifted up by a thread fastened in the centre, 

 it would assume the shape of the dome in the web of the Basil- 

 ica spider. In point of fact, this effect might be produced from the charac- 

 teristic snares of those species which have been described in the opening of 

 this chapter. If, for example, one were to fasten a thread to the central 

 point of the orb of Tetragnatha or the Orchard spider, and gradually lift 

 it until the orb should assume the dome shape, he would have a snare very 

 strongly resembling that of Basilica. The principal difference would be that 

 the apron of intersecting lines beneath the dome of the Orchard spider ap- 

 pears in Basilica's web as the underlying curtain; and in addition thereto 

 a similar mass of spinningwork appears above the orb. Another difference 

 is that the spiral concentrics all have the notched appearance of the few 

 central concentrics which compose what I have named the notched zone. 



Several years after I had observed and published the description of Bas- 

 ilica's web and its relations, substantially as described above, I was greatly 

 delighted to have my study confirmed by the observations of Dr. 

 3bserva- G eorge Marx, of Washington, D. C. He had received my ac- 

 flrmed. count with much skepticism, as indeed did other arachnologists. 

 Unfortunately, my description of this entirely new form of orb- 

 web, and the remarkable deduction therefrom, were based upon observations 

 of a single example both of spinningwork and spider making it. I had no 

 doubt of the accuracy of my notes and sketches, which were made with 

 care and painstaking, for at the first glance I apprehended the importance 

 of the discovery. Nevertheless, I greatly desired to find other examples, 

 but searched in vain in the neighborhood of my camp. 1 



It was, therefore, with unusual satisfaction that I learned from Dr. 

 Marx that he had observed several specimens of Basilica in the shrubbery 

 on the beautiful parked grounds surrounding the Agricultural Department 

 and other public buildings of the national capital. He confirmed my de- 

 scription of the character of the web, and added thereto an obser- 

 vation of the manner in which the dome is reared. The hypo- 

 thetical case, given in my original paper, of the manner in which 

 the domed orb of Basilica might be (substantially) erected out of the hori- 

 zontal orb of the Orchard spider, proved to be a fortunate anticipation of 

 the exact method of the spider. Dr. Marx says that the orb is at first a 



1 1 had gone to Texas with a special purpose, namely, the study of the Agricultural 

 Ants ; and it was absolutely necessary, in order to follow my line of study and experiments, 

 that I should limit the time given to other observations. I have often regretted that I 

 could not have spent a day or two in searching the surrounding district for other examples 

 pf Basilica, 



