196 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



FIG. 187. The Ray spider seated on her snare, just before 

 drawing the trapline. 



species will be considered more 

 fully in the appropriate part 

 of this work. 1 At present we 

 may devote our attention to 

 the remarkable and most in- 

 teresting character of the 

 web. 



The locations in which I 

 first discovered the snares, and 

 where afterward I found them 

 to be quite abundant; had been 

 for several years a familiar 

 and favorite hunting ground 

 for spiders. It illustrates the 

 fact that some of the most in- 

 teresting discoveries that await 

 future observers may be found 

 near their own w r ell known 

 haunts, and upon ground that 

 has been often searched by other workers, or even by themselves. 



The first examples of the species collected by me attracted little atten- 

 tion so far as the snare was 

 concerned, because 

 they seemed to be 

 simply a new spe- 

 cies, or the young of an old 

 species of Orbweaver, hang- 

 ing upon the remnants of 

 webs greatly broken by or- 

 dinary wear and tear in cap- 

 turing insects. But the rep- 

 etition of the form, partic- 

 ularly the peculiar character 

 of the open central, struck 

 me as strange. How could 

 the nets of several spiders 

 possibly happen to be twist- 

 ed into the same shape, and 

 that shape so strikingly odd 

 as that which I observed ? 

 This caused me to make a 



Discov- 

 ery. 



FIG. 188. Interblending of rays upon one axis. H, hub, or 

 central point; T, trapline. 



1 Dr. Thorell, to whom I sent specimens, has recently written me that he considers my 

 Radiosa quite identical with Theridiosoma gemmosum (L. Koch), and agrees with me that 

 on structural grounds alone it may be* well ranked with the Orbitelarise. 



