218 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
special exigencies. Most of the above examples and perhaps all are illus- 
trations of this. 
ra 
Fic. 205. Furrow epider’s Ee Peas den of sawdust. 
and proceeded to spin her snare directly 
below the opening. She attached her trap- 
line to the hub, and thus in her hanging 
home continued to wait for prey.’ (Fig. 
204, page 216.) 
Another somewhat similar case of adap- 
tation in nest making was due to an acci- 
dent in the environment of the web. A 
half-grown Epeira strix had woy- 
it Cee en a snare in the hollow of a tree 
(at New Lisbon, Ohio), within two 
feet of the ground. A colony of Pennsyl- 
yania carpenter ants (Camponotus Penn- 
sylvanicus) had quarters in the tree, and a 
squad of black workers were busy excavat- 
ing their wooden galleries. ‘These dumped 
their chippings from openings just above 
the spider’s orb, whose viscid spirals re- 
tained a goodly quantity of the brown 
sawdust. In course of time a ball of chip- 
pings as big as a walnut had accumulated, 
1'The incident occurred at Vineland, New Jersey, and notes and measurements for the 
Another case in point was furnished by a Shamrock 
spider, Epeira trifolium, that 
exhibited a remarkable ability 
to adapt her domi- 
Special  Gile to very peculiar 
Adapta- . 
ti circumstances. She 
ion, 
had placed her nest 
in the curled leaf of a grape 
vine, which becoming detached 
from the stem fell and entan- 
gled within the lines of the orb 
beneath. Whereupon the oc- 
cupant, in nowise disconcerted, 
adjusted her tent, stayed it 
above and at the sides with 
guy lines, braced it beneath, 
_——— 
> 
Sd a 
i) 
Vis 
Fic. 206. A blockaded path, 
figure were furnished me by Mrs. Treat. The incident is also recorded in that author's 
“My Garden Pets.” 
