NESTING HABITS AND PROTECTIVE ARCHITECTURE. 



305 



enables her to dispense with much of her shelter. In stone walls along 

 Niantic Bay (Connecticut) and Cape Ann (Massachusetts) many of this 

 species are domiciled. They spin 

 their nest upward against the 

 boulders built into the wall, and 

 avail themselves of the little cav- 

 ities and rugosities therein. Thus 

 sheltered above and from within 

 they need less protection, and ac- 

 cordingly their silken tents are 

 generally very scant and rudi- 

 mentary. 



Closely related to Triaranea in 

 the character of her nidification 

 is the Labyrinth spider, 

 one of the most inter- 

 esting of our indige- 

 nous fauna. Labyrin- 

 thea weaves a silken 

 dome, hung within a maze of 

 crossed lines, precisely like that of 

 Triaranea. I have marked a dif- 

 ference in the character of the 

 trapline, which seems to consist 

 of a number of threads more 

 commonly than in the case of 

 Triaranea. There is one feature, 



Laby- 

 rinth 

 Spider's 

 Nest. 



FIG. 281. Cylindrical nest of Epeira thaddeus woven 

 beneath a tent of clustered leaves. 



however, which seems to be peculiar to this species. 

 Within the midst of her maze will almost al- 

 ways be found a dry leaf; and underneath this 

 the spider rests, sometimes without much inter- 

 posed spinningwork, but at other times within 

 the ordinary silken dome. (See Chapter VIII., 

 Fig. 114.) The leaf may frequently fall within 

 her retitelarian snare, and probably is not, as a 

 rule, brought there by the action of the spider, 

 although I cannot affirm this. But it is certain 

 that, the leaf being within her maze, she does 

 draw it to some central place and cluster the 

 netted lines around it as a central point, and 

 FIG. 282. The beii shaped silken then establishes herself beneath the leaf, against 



nest of Epeira triaranea. m, T_ i_ ^i. _c j.- i_ i -L 



the retitelarian mass; T, trap- wnlch , m the COUrS6 of time, she proceeds to abut 



Une - the summit of her silken dome. (Fig. 283.) She 



has thus secured additional protection from assaults made from above. 



