The Garden Spiders: Building the Web 



very irregular, being marked out by the sup- 

 ports of the branch, which are infinitely 

 variable. There are angular niches which, if 

 skirted too closely, would disturb the sym- 

 metry of the web about to be constructed. 

 The Epeira needs an exact space wherein 

 gradually to lay her spiral thread. More- 

 over, she must not leave any gaps through 

 which her prey might find an outlet. 



An expert in these matters, the Spider soon 

 knows the corners that have to be filled up. 

 With an alternating movement, first in this 

 direction, then in that, she lays, upon the 

 support of the radii, a thread that forms two 

 acute angles at the lateral boundaries of the 

 faulty part and describes a zigzag line not 

 wholly unlike the ornament known as the fret. 



The sharp corners have now been filled 

 with frets on every side ; the time has come to 

 work at the essential part, the snaring-web 

 for which all the rest is but a support. Cling- 

 ing on the one hand to the radii, on the other 

 to the chords of the auxiliary spiral, the 

 Epeira covers the same ground as when lay- 

 ing the spiral, but in the opposite direction: 

 formerly, she moved away from the centre; 

 now she moves towards it and with closer and 

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