a a 
200 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
upon which the entanglement had occurred is quite cut away. The spider 
thereupon proceeds to operate the remaining parts of her snare, which, in 
time, is thus destroyed by sections, as will be fully illustrated hereafter. 
The second mode of operation resembles that of the Triangle spider, 
Hyptiotes cavatus (Hentz). It is at this point that the habit of our Ray 
spider becomes particularly interesting. The Triangle spider makes a tri- 
angular web, which is in fact an orb sector, composed with 
Resem- unvarying regularity of four spirally crossed radii converging ap- 
blance to : : : ete \ eee 
Hyptiotes Proximately upon a single line. Upon this line the spider hangs 
back downward, grasping it with all her feet, and having a por- 
tion of the line rolled up slack between her two hind pairs of feet. Thus 
the forward and back parts of the trapline are taut, while the interme- 
diate part is slack. The spiral parts of the snare are also taut. When 
the web is struck by an insect, 
the spider suddenly releases 
her hind feet, the slack line 
sharply uncoils, the spider 
shoots forward, the whole web 
relaxes, and the spiral lines 
are thrown around the insect. 
This is repeated several times 
before the prey is seized: (See 
description and cuts in Chap- 
ter XI.) 
Precisely the same action 
characterizes the Ray spider. 
: Her ordinary position, or at 
Fic. 194. Ray spider (greatly enlarged) in position, back down- 1 . hawk 
ward, ona taut snare. To show the slack line coil, Sl. The least the one in which I most 
positions of the feet on the foot basket are marked by nu- frequently observed her, is a 
merals; a, b, c, the axes of several rays. yied 
sitting posture, back upward, 
as shown at Fig. 187. The axes of the rays are held in the third and 
fourth pairs of legs, the fourth commanding the upper, the third the lower 
series, quite habitually, as it appeared to me. A sort of “ bas- 
ket,” or system of connecting lines, shown at Figs. 187, 195, 
unites all the feet, seeming to converge toward the fore feet (per- 
haps, upon the second pair), where they grasp the trapline. It 
is upon this foot basket that the spider sits when her net is bowed. 
This, however, is not the invariable posture; in the reconstruction of 
the rays and shifting of the axes, as the day’s work tells upon the snare, 
the spider will vary her posture to that of Fig. 191. The trapline gen- 
erally has a direction downward rather than upward, so that the head 
and fore feet tend to be depressed below the abdomen, Figs. 192, 193, 
and this depression may gradually result in the complete inversion of 
the animal, so that she assumes the natural position of Orbweavers. I 
Posture 
on the 
Snare. 
