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224 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
The block was laid upon a rough plastered cellar window (in my church cel- 
lar) much frequented by spiders, and was overspun as indicated in the figure. 
The ridge of the pyramidal structure drooped between the tips of the wire 
hoop, quite like the main cable of a wire suspension bridge. 
From this numerous diverging lines stretched on either side to 
the ridge cable and within the side guy lines a maze of 
thickened netted lines was spread, from which support- 
ing trestle like lines dropped down perpendicularly 
= to the surface of the block, The spider her- 
self, with several white globular flossy co- 
coons and a bevy of younglings be- 
sides, was domiciled 
within a series of lines 
Uy i that extended from one 
W/// of the wire tips (left 
sey #// hand of the cut) to the 
aN ES y\> i} stone window frame. The 
/ 1X i} K \ gf resemblance of this struct- 
4 IX y/ ure to the wire bridges or 
x) AK \\h il wooden trestlework of hu- 
Bat ‘i LIXN y \) man engineers is apparent 
a 
——<—— at a glance. 
yp | At times, 
when the sit- 
uation will al- 
low, the spin- 
ningwork of 
Theridium 
assumes even 
more decidedly the form of a nest. For example, in the horse stables 
of “Almora,” the country seat of a gentleman resident at Wallingford, 
the windows are protected by a wide meshed wire frame. Within the 
meshes and around the window frame a vast number of spiderlings of 
Theridium tepidariorum had colonized. The scant lines which 
Globular formed the original snares had gradually been thickened around 
Struct- the margins, from which stay lines were thrown out in all di- 
oe rections. In the course of time the snare assumed the globular 
an: shape which is indicated in the cut. (Fig. 218.) Within the 
centre, which was more scantily woven and more open than 
elsewhere, the spider was established. This condition of the central part 
was quite the reverse of what one usually sees, viz., the thickening of the 
web near the spider’s habitat. The variation appears to have been caused 
by the necessity of strengthening the points at which the guy lines and 
ir 
Fic. 212. Theridium’s silk suspension bridge. 
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