aan se ee ey 
ve ‘ind TLR ras 
NESTING HABITS AND PROTECTIVE ARCHITECTURE. 805 
enables her to dispense with much of her shelter. In stone walls along 
Niantic Bay (Connecticut) and Cape Ann (Massachusetts) many of this 
vA 
species are domiciled. They spin 
their nest upward against the 
boulders built into the wall, and 
avail themselves of the little cay- 
ities and rugosities therein. Thus 
sheltered above and from within 
they need less protection, and ac- 
cordingly their silken tents are 
generally very scant and rudi- 
mentary. 
Closely related to Triaranea in 
the character of her nidification 
is the Labyrinth spider, 
peas one of the most inter- 
Spi der’s @Sting of our indige- 
Mast. nous fauna, Labyrin- 
thea weaves a silken 
dome, hung within a maze of 
crossed lines, precisely like that of 
Triaranea. I have marked a dif- 
ference in the character of the 
trapline, which seems to consist 
of a number of threads more 
commonly than in the case of FiG, 281. Cylindrical nest of Epeira thaddeus woven 
: : beneath a tent of clustered leaves. 
Triaranea. There is one feature, 
however, which seems to be peculiar to this species. 
Within the midst of her maze will almost al- 
ways be found a dry leaf; and underneath this 
the spider rests, sometimes without much inter- 
posed spinningwork, but at other times within 
the ordinary silken dome. (See Chapter VIII, 
Fig. 114.) The leaf may frequently fall within 
her retitelarian snare, and probably is not, as a 
rule, brought there by the action of the spider, 
although I cannot affirm this. But it is certain 
that, the leaf being within her maze, she does 
draw it to some central place and cluster the 
netted lines around it as a central point, and 
Fig, 282, The bell shaped silken then establishes herself beneath the leaf, against 
iis ott he nie which, in the course of time, she proceeds to abut 
line. the summit of her silken dome. (Fig. 283.) She 
has thus secured additional protection from assaults made from above. 
Ce ea a aoe 
