JOO 



AMKKU'AN Sl'lOKRS AND T1IKIK SIMXN I NV, WORK. 



upon which the entanglement had occurred is quite cut away. The spider 

 thereupon proceeds to operate the remaining parts i.f her snare, which, in 

 time, is thus destroyed by sections, as will be fully illustrated hereafter. 



The second mode of operation resembles that of the Triangle spider, 

 Hyptiotes eavatus ^HentzV It is at this point that the habit of our Ray 

 spider becomes partieularly interesting. The Triangle spider makes a tri- 

 angular web, which is in fact an orb sector, composed with 

 Resem- unvarying regularity of four spindly crossed radii converging ap- 



proximatelv upon a single line. Upon this line the spider lianas 

 Hyptiotes} 



hack downward, grasping it with all her teet, and having a por- 

 tion of the line rolled up slack between her two hind pairs of feet. Thus 

 the forward and back parts -of the trapline are taut, while the interme- 

 diate part is slack. The spiral parts of the snare are also taut. When 



the web is struck by an insect, 

 the spider suddenly releases 

 her hind feet, the slack line 

 sharply uncoils, the spider 

 shoots forward, the whole web 

 relaxes, and the spiral lines 

 are thrown around the insect. 

 This is repeated several times 

 before the prey is sei/.ed. (See 

 description and cuts in Chap- 

 ter XU 



Precisely the same action 

 characteri7.es the Ray spider. 

 Her ordinary position, or at 



Fu;. 194. Ray spider (greatly enlarged) in position, back down- , , , . i i T 



ward, on a taut snare. To show the slack line coil, SI. The lc;lst the one ln WIUCD 1 most 



positions of the feel on the foot basket are marked by nu- freuUCUtlv observed her, is a 

 morals; a, b, .-, the axes of several rays. 



sitting posture, back upward, 



as shown at Fig. 187. The axes of the rays are held in the third and 

 fourth pairs of legs, the fourth commanding the upper, the third the lower 

 series, quite habitually, as it appeared to me. A sort of "bas- 

 ket," or system of connecting lines, shown at Figs. 187, 15>.~>, 

 unites all the Dining to converge toward the fore feet (per- 



haps, upon the second pair\ where they grasp the trapline. It 

 is Upon this foot basket that tin 1 spider sits when her net is bowed. 



This, however, is not the invariable posture ; in the reconstruction of 

 the rays and shifting of the axes, as the day's work tells upon the snare, 

 the spider will vary her posture to that of Fig. 191. The trapline gen- 

 erally has a direction downward rather than upward, so that the head 

 and fore feet tend to be depressed below the abdomen, Figs. 192, 193, 

 and this depression may gradually result in the complete inversion of 

 the animal, so that she assumes the natural position of Orbweavers. I 



Posture 

 on the 

 Snare. 



