Vee, Pee 
NESTING HABITS AND PROTECTIVE ARCHITECTURE. 287 
tos ee te Se — 
as in Fig. 258. Indeed, constant regard is had in the nest architecture 
fe 0 the stability of the leafy domicile. Stay lines of various 
nee lengths and thickness are thrown out to adjoining objects until 
of Nest. ; : : 
the nest hangs firmly poised, and is thus thoroughly inter- 
woven with the spinningwork system of the occupant. 
A third form of nest may be designated the woven leaf nest. It is 
shown at Fig. 259, where it is seen to be a close textured silken bell, 
woven between the needle like leaves of a pine tree. The mouth 
ae opens downward and toward the snare. This silken tent does 
not appear to be woven as closely as that often spun by the 
Furrow Spider, but affords good protection to the inmate, and shows her 
ability to deftly adapt her spinningwork to her environment. 
These three forms of nest, tent, or den will be found to indicate, with 
more or less accuracy, the spinningwork of Orbweavers, and, to some ex- 
tent, of all the Sedentary spiders, as applied to arboreal nest architecture. 
The terms cluster-leaf nest, rolled-leaf nest, and woven-leaf nest may there- 
fore be used in the above sense, although without attempting to establish 
anything like a rigid classification. 
To these may be added a fourth type, the woven nest, which is well 
illustrated by the close textured tubular den spun by Epeira strix and 
Epeira sclopetaria against exposed parts of human habitations. 
This form of nest is sometimes cylindrical, as with the nests 
woven by Strix and Sclopetaria. This is composed of a close 
textured sheet of spinningwork rolled as in Fig. 260, and stayed by guy 
lines attached to various parts of the surrounding surfaces. Often the 
nest is quite egg shaped. The spider inhabits this tube, having her face 
toward the opening, and holding as usual to her trapline. Sometimes the 
nest is simply a square patch of thick white silk stretched across an angle 
or corner, open in the direction of the snare, and either open or closed at 
the other end. Many nests of this sort have been seen on the verandah 
of a gentleman’s cottage at Niantic, Connecticut, spun by Epeira patagiata 
and E. sclopetaria. During the day the spiders keep closely to cover, and, 
as the afternoon declines, creep out and weave their snares. They haye a 
weird look as they swing to and fro against the darkening sky. 
Again, the woven nest is bell shaped, and open as with the tent of 
EKpeira domiciliorum (Fig. 261) when she chooses a similar site. The lower 
part of this nest is spun of open linework, and is supported 
by silken guys hung upon thick foundation lines or directly 
attached to the surrounding surfaces. The upper part is closely 
woyen, and thus affords protection to the spider who rests within, and 
particularly to the soft abdomen, which is the most vulnerable and least 
defensible portion of the body, and which, as it occupies the topmost part 
of the tent, is, of course, most protected from assaults of raiding Hymen- 
optera. 
Woven 
Nest. 
Domicile 
Spider. 
