- _ habit, or a habit more or less developed in * 
COMPOSITE SNARES AND SECTORAL ORBS. 135 
and, indeed, may be described as the method which Agalena also uses when 
spinning the retitelarian supports of her long sheeted snare. 
The peculiar snare of Labyrinthea and other spiders making a composite 
web appears to be a larger development of a habit which is seen to a greater 
or less degree in the genus Argiope. In considering the particular 
A Devel- spinningwork of this genus I have already called attention to the 
ite fact that both Cophinaria and Argyraspis suspend the upper foun- 
dation lines of their orbs to a series of intersecting straight lines 
which are spun with more or less consistency to the overhanging and sur- 
rounding foliage. This sys- 
tem of crossed lines is very 
frequently carried downward 
to one side of the orb and 
sometimes upon both sides, 
so that it forms what I have 
called the protective wings or 
fenders. If the reader will 
compare the more perfect and 
permanent spinning habit of 
Labyrinthea and Triaranea with 
that which is described and fig- 
ured as the work of Argiope, he \ 
will see the close resemblance be- \ 
tween the two. One may therefore ‘\ 
say that what appears as a rudimentary \Q 
fectly de- 
ior of Laby- 
vorite site that 
is noticeably a 
a tree or dead 
haye seen it in 
that she will 
locality not so 
the case of Argiope has appeared as a per ~ 
veloped and fixed habit in the spinning behav \ 
rinthea. There is a marked peculiarity in the fa \ 
Labyrinthea chooses for her snare. This 
dead and leafless bush, or a leafless part of \ 
branch. The habit is quite persistent, and I 
every well established habitat of the species. It is true 
spin her snare among leayes, but her preference is for a 
obstructed. In such sites she is often seen in little groups or colo- 
nies. In one such colony at Radnor, Pennsylvania, I counted thirty 
adult spiders, whose snares were spun upon a dry me, 120. cCodp- brush heap 
within a space six feet long, six wide, and five frtive howe high, — ‘To 
. ping by two 
this “clearing” every individual settler had no Labyrinth spi- doubt been 
attracted by the same favorable conditions for an un “** obstructed 
habitation. Perhaps the instinct which induces this choice is under the 
same influence as that which urges many Theridioid species to seek similar 
sites for their retitelarian snares, which exactly resemble the maze of Laby- 
rinthea’s web, Certainly, it is interesting and curious to find these two. 
Favorite 
Sites. 
