SS rl rl ee 
THE TRIANGLE SPIDER: THE ORB SECTOR. 183 
The mode of spinning the foundation lines or frame has never been 
observed, as far as I know, by any naturalist. A careful study of a number 
of webs, however, has led me to con- 
clude that it is spun as follows: In 
the first place, the spider stretches 
between two points a sin- 
gle line, which we may rep- 
resent by the dotted line, 
PB, in Fig. 171. She then 
proceeds to attach to this line, say at 
the point A, another thread, which 
is carried along the original line, Fie. 171. Making the frame of the Triangle spider’s 
PB, to the place of attachment, B. rape 
Thence up the branch or other object to C, where the carried line is 
drawn taut and fastened. There is thus produced the line AC, and the 
original foundation line having been drawn 
upward by pulling upon AC, has assumed 
the curved form of AB. ‘The two outer 
radii of the snare are thus in place. Now 
the spider drops from the point CB, carry- 
ing with her a thread, which is attached at 
B, and becomes thus the base line of the 
triangle CABC. Proceeding along the line 
BA, carrying with her a thread as before, 
she makes another attachment at E, returns 
upon her course to B, and thence upward 
to E, on the base line where the carried thread is straightened, fastened, 
and the third radius, EE, completed. In a similar way the fourth radius, 
DD, is stretched. This, of course, 
does not express the exact order in 
every case, but the general method. 
It will be observed that these 
radial lines do not meet in a com- 
mon point. This is in- 
Making 
the 
Frame. 
Fic, 172. Frame or radial lines of Hyptiotes’ 
snare, as in nature. 
Have deed contrary to most 
Sea a ublished descriptions of 
Common P p 
Point? the appearance of the 
snare. For example, 
Thorell speaks of these threads iM Fie. 173. Natural arrangement of radii, to show the order 
the net of Hyptiotes paradoxus as OE Secor ess 
forming “equal angles with the original thread, and each other.”! Em- 
erton speaks of the apex as “the point where the rays meet.”2 He again 
1 Kuropean Spiders, page 70. * New England Spiders, Family Ciniflonide. 
