PROCURING FOOD AND FEEDING. 265 
and transporting the mum- 
mied insect. If the day 
happens to be a very good 
day, viewed from the spi- 
der’s standpoint, or a bad 
one from that of the flies; 
if the net site happens to 
be one where insects are nu- 
merous, the web will pre- 
sent a very forlorn appear- 
ance even early in the day, - 
and by the time evening has 
come it will be but a tat- 
tered remnant of the beau- 
tiful object which caught 
the morning dew and glis- 
tened in the first sunbeams. 
Fig. 239 is a sketch of 
a portion of web of Epeira 
strix, from which a freshly 
captured insect had been 
taken. The lines are drawn 
very accurately from nature. 
In the act of captur- 
ing an insect it becomes 
necessary for the spider to 
piece together the parts of the web which are separated. either by the 
breakage of the insect’s struggles or the intentional cutting of the spider 
herself. This mending is done with great deftness and skill. The 
broken parts are held together by one or more of the feet, usually 
the hind feet. The claws on one side of the body grasp 
Mending one portion of the armature, while those on the other 
FiG, 239. Section of Epeira’s orb after an insect has been captured, 
Broken : : 
Webs grasp the opposite broken part. At the same time a 
thread is thrown out from the spinnerets, is attached to 
9 . . : : 
w the margins of the fracture, and the rent is pieced together in a 
x manner almost impossible to describe, and indeed to observe at all, 
we. 40. so rapidly is it accomplished. 
broken Fig. 240 is a piece of a broken radius spliced by Epeira strix. 
a R, represents the radius; L, L, lines which were run along either 
byHpei- side thereof; and W, a zigzag cross line by which the three straight 
tastrix. lines were warped together. At other times the angular points of 
the fracture on either side are simply held together by one or more lines, 
as the case requires, thus taking the place of the sundered radii and lost 
spirals by which the segments had been held together. 
