NESTING HABITS AND PROTECTIVE ARCHITECTURE. 287 



as in Fig. 258. Indeed, constant regard is had in the nest architecture 

 to the stability of the leafy domicile. Stay lines of various 



Sto-kility i eil gths and thickness are thrown out to adjoining objects until 

 the nest hangs firmly poised, and is thus thoroughly inter- 



woven with the spinningwork system of the occupant. 



A third form of nest may be designated the woven leaf nest. It is 



shown at Fig. 259, where it is seen to be a close textured silken bell, 

 woven between the needle like leaves of a pine tree. The mouth 



^Jt? ..opens downward and toward the snare. This silken tent does 

 Leaf Nest J A , -. ,, 



not appear to be woven as closely as that otten spun by the 



Furrow Spider, but affords good protection to the inmate, and shows her 

 ability to deftly adapt her spinningwork to her environment. 



These three forms of nest, tent, or den will be found to indicate, with 

 more or less accuracy, the spinningwork of Orbweavers, and, to some ex- 

 tent, of all the Sedentary spiders, as applied to arboreal nest architecture. 

 The terms cluster-leaf nest, rolled-leaf nest, and woven-leaf nest may there- 

 fore be used in the above sense, although without attempting to establish 

 anything like a rigid classification. 



To these may be added a fourth type, the woven nest, which is well 

 illustrated by the close textured tubular den spun by Epeira strix and 

 Epeira sclopetaria against exposed parts of human habitations. 

 Wovei This form of nest is sometimes cylindrical, as with the nests 

 woven by Strix and Sclopetaria. This is composed of a close 

 textured sheet of spinningwork rolled as in Fig. 260, and stayed by guy 

 lines attached to various parts of the surrounding surfaces. Often the 

 nest is quite egg shaped. The spider inhabits this tube, having her face- 

 toward the opening, and holding as usual to her trapline. Sometimes the 

 nest is simply a square patch of thick white silk stretched across an angle 

 or corner, open in the direction of the snare, and either open or closed at 

 the other end. Many nests of this sort have been seen on the verandah 

 of a gentleman's cottage at Niantic, Connecticut, spun by Epeira patagiata 

 and E. sclopetaria. During the day the spiders keep closely to cover, and, 

 as the afternoon declines, creep out and weave their snares. They have a 

 weird look as they swing to and fro against the darkening sky. 



Again, the woven nest is bell shaped, and open as with the tent of 



Epeira domicihorum (Fig. 261) when she chooses a similar site. The lower 



part of this nest is spun of open linework, and is supported 



omic o ky silken guys hung upon thick foundation lines or directly 



attached to the surrounding surfaces. The upper part is closely 



woven, and thus affords protection to the spider who rests within, and 



particularly to the soft abdomen, which is the most vulnerable and least 



defensible portion of the body, and which, as it occupies the topmost part 



of the tent, is, of course, most protected from assaults of raiding Hymen- 



optera. 



