324 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



As a result of the above comparative study of the nesting industry of 

 the spider fauna, we may conclude that there is one germinal or typical 

 form of nest among all the tribes, which form is the tube. 

 " e ypl " Around this common and rudimentary form the greatly varied 

 'and widely divergent nests of spiders, whether known as dom- 

 iciles, dens, tents, tunnels, or caves, may be grouped in series of more or 

 less modified forms. 



It may be allowable to say, using the language of accommodation, that 

 all these variations have been developed in these various species around 

 this typical and germinal form; but the statement cannot be said to rest 



upon any demonstration of actual facts, * and 

 must stand simply as a convenient and appro- 

 priate formula for expressing certain relations. 

 It is, however, a sufficiently interesting discov- 

 ery that, amidst so many forms which at first 

 sight appear to be widely different, one is able 

 to trace with striking and manifest clearness a 

 common plan. 



As one considers them, he is conscious of 

 something like the feelings with which he wan- 

 ders through the studio of an artist of fecund 

 and versatile genius. Variety of invention and 

 detail in execution are certainly manifest; but 

 everywhere, also, are apparent to the critical 

 student traces of a single mind, whose dominant 

 -^ characteristics inevitably assert themselves in its 

 -' products. The details vary; the Author's style 

 is one. Perhaps this unity of plan is not to be 



FIG. 307. Partly covered and sanded WOndered at, when W6 reflect that the physio- 

 frame of Atypus Abboti. logical characteristics of spiders in all tribes and 

 species are not widely different, and hence the functions might be expected 

 to find very similar expressions, at least in certain fundamental points. 



III. 



In comparing the detailed studies of the manner in which the various 

 tribes of spiders construct the typical tubular nest, one reaches the con- 

 clusion that there is little or no difference in the processes as 

 Uniform p ursuec l by individuals. When Epeira constructs a tubular den, 

 ! " she proceeds in her work in precisely the same way as Agalena 

 Method, when laying out the tubular part of her snare, or as Abbot's 

 Atypus, the Purseweb spider, when constructing the long tube 

 within which she spends her life. So, also, the Basket Argiope, when 

 spreading the thickening shield which forms the centre of her orb, has 

 the same method as the Speckled tubeweaver or the Medicinal spider when 



