——— * v* 
ARGIOPE AND HER RIBBONED ORB. 97 
diademata. Her orbs are frequently very large, but in this are wholly regu- 
lated by site. A good figure of one of these orbs with details accurately 
drawn is given at Fig. 47. 
The peculiarity which first. strikes the observer is the oval shield 
of white silk tissue which quite covers the hub. This is thickest and 
closest in the centre, and grows thinner and more open towards 
ee the margin, where it gradually merges into the radii which 
and Band. 2"¢ attached to 
it. In the adult 
spider it is usually about 
‘two inches long by one and 
a half wide! Attached to 
the shield above and _ be- 
low, and extending upward 
and downward between two 
radii, is a zigzag ribbon of 
white silk, an inch or more 
long and one-fourth of an 
inch or more wide. It 
traverses the whole central 
space and extends down- 
ward about two inches un- 
til it is lost in the spirals 
of the lower half of the orb. 
These upper and lower 
ribbons vary in their de- 
gree of regular- 
The Use ity; they are gen- 
OF ae erally stretched 
Zigzag. y 
between two ra- 
dii to which they are at- 
tached on either side; but aly / 
sometimes they overspread ih \ Hi) i, j i 
three radii wholly or in meee Pull A Mi ey 
part. Sometimes they are Fic. 89. The orb of Argiope. The spider is represented at the 
simply irregular patches or right of the cut, the male near her. 
strips and often are wanting above the shield; but the lower ribbon is 
rarely wanting. This variety in the character of the shield appears to 
be influenced more or less by age. ‘The shield is generally less prom- 
inent in the young than in the adult spider; nevertheless, it appears 
often on the orbs of the very young. This is also the case with the 
nignag ribbon, and I have seen a perfectly marked Tigzag both above and 
1The shield presented at ee 52 measured two Grichios lone and one oaks a half wide ; 
another example was one and three-fourths by one and one-half inches. 
