OHAPTEE XVIII. 



NEST MAKING: ITS ORIGIN AND USE: DEVELOPMENT IN 



VARIOUS TRIBES. 



I. 



A STUDY of the modes of construction described in the preceding chap- 

 ter suggests the thought that- the habit of nest making may have origi- 

 nated among the Orbweavers in an accidental way. The tendency is natural 

 and universal, among spiders of all kinds, to shelter themselves 



Origin of underneath arboreal or other surfaces. They know instinctivelv 



Nest 



M , . that they are exposed to enemies. The under surfaces of leaves, or 



Habit the little domes formed by clusters of drooping leaves, are most 

 common and natural shelters for spiders when living on arboreal 

 sites. With such creatures, that subsist by means of the spinning habit, 

 and constantly protect themselves by fastening draglines to the surfaces 

 over which they move, and thus never venture any distance without leav- 

 ing an attachment behind them, and a thread by "which they can return, 

 it would be the most natural thing conceivable to attach themselves in 

 like manner by outspun threads to surfaces beneath which they had thus 

 sought shelter. 



In the restless movements of the body back and forth, numerous attach- 

 ments would be made, and so a rude silken shelter would easily result ; 

 and it would inevitably follow, without premeditation or purpose of the 

 spider, that the leaves, by the very action of the threads, would be held 

 together, and in the course of time drawn closer together into the various 

 nest shapes which we see. These forms might thus be made without any 

 fixed purpose or definite movement of intelligence. That it is often so I 

 am well satisfied. That the more perfect habit could have originated in 

 this seemingly accidental way, and have become fixed in the course of 

 time by heredity, appears not an unreasonable theory. 



At all events, it is certain that in the selection and adjustment of mate- 

 rial in the nidification of Orbweavers, one does not see such a deliberate 

 and intelligent purpose as is found, for example, among some of 

 the Lycosids. The turret spider, Lycosa arenicola Scudder, de- 

 Selection liberately seeks and selects the bits of straw and sticks out of 

 which she rears her little tower so like an old fashioned log 

 cabin chimney. (Fig. 289.) There is here a deliberate choice and bring- 

 ing of material to the nest site. 



(313) 



