so eS oF Cn ee eee ee ee ee 
220 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
structure which is represented at Fig. 206. It is easy to explain the mode 
of forming this remarkable framework, if we suppose that the spider was 
perched upon the twig, a, and emitted from her spinnerets a 
From thread which was carried out and upward by the wind, and 
Treetop : : : : ; 
to Path, ®utangled at b, thus forming the prime foundation line, ab. 
Thence she could have moved to the point between d and a, 
whence she would have dropped to the ground, a distance of ten feet, 
and hitched a second line to a tuft of grass. A third line might readily 
have been secured by dropping from the point d, the natural swaying 
of the spider, increased by a breeze, carrying her to ec. This line, de, 
could easily have been pulled in by the cross lines above and below the 
orb. A conyenient frame being thus obtained, the spinning of the orb 
would be a simple mat- : ree ‘ 
ter. The entanglement 
I< 
to the side shrubbery at f 
4 
c, c, may also have been 
made by aid of the 
breeze in part. 
If, in the absence of 
direct observation, one 
were to deny the use 
of air currents, then it 
must be supposed that 
the spider carried its 
line along the tree to 
the tip of the branch, b, 
which was twenty-five 
feet above the ground ; Me 
and after that it would 
be difficult to conjecture 
how she could have proceeded. In fact, in this case the “carrying around” 
theory alluded to in a foregoing chapter appears to me quite incredible. 
If we admit that the moving breeze materially aided the spider in her 
work of construction, and that she was thus in part dependent upon 
chance, yet there remains a pretty wide field for intelligent selection and 
adaptation. One would suppose that it required a really nimble witted 
creature to seize an unexpected opportunity like the above and turn it to 
such good account. 
Nor is this an exceptional or even rare example. One often meets, 
in his walks through our fields and woods, the snares of Orbweavers 
woven upon the grasses or bushes bordering a meadow path (Fig. 207), 
or the low undergrowth of an open wood or grove, while the nesting 
tent and the upper supporting lines are attached ten or fifteen feet aloft 
upon a branch or dead limb of a tree. It would be as idle to suppose 
Fic. 208. Trusses on a fractured snare of Agalena ncevia. 
aS 
“Pak S' 
