306 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
In some cases the concavities of the leaf are utilized, and the spider, 
creeping within them, finds an additional shelter, and makes such con- 
cavities the site for the location of her silken dome. 
(Figs. 284, 285.) Labyrinthea is able to avail her- 
self of other roofing material than a leaf, 
for I have more than once found her snare 
in the pine forests of New Jersey, haying 
in the centre of the maze a mass of miscellaneous 
material, such as fine sawdust, or the castings of 
moth larvee, or drifted rubbish of various sorts, which 
had probably fallen upon the tangle of crossed lines, 
and had been gathered by the occupant into a mass, 
which, being agglutinated 
by the viscid threads, was 
finally shaped into a solid 
shelter, beneath which the 
spider rested and eyentu- 
ally constructed her silken 
Fig. 283. Leaf roofed dome of dome. 
shorten pease Labyrinthea is a most 
persistent dweller within her domicile. I think 
the female rarely leaves the confines of her web, 
limiting her life to living within her tent, spin- 
ning her orb and trapping flies upon it, and wan- 
dering back and forward in various duties of house- 
keeping and house repairing through her retite- 
larian maze. She may make excursions into ad-. 
joining foliage and surroundings, as some other 
Orbweavers do; but, if so, I have never been able 
to find her abroad. She even spins her cocoons 
within the limits of her netted snare, and there jie, 984, Leafy canopy of Laby- 
her young are hatched and frequently occupy the — *inthea, hung within the maze. 
site for a while after egress, and subsist upon the microscopic insects that 
are entangled upon the lines. 
The nesting habits of the Hunchback Epeira (Epeira 
gibberosa) have already been referred to (Chapter IX., 
page 154, Fig. 145) in connection with the mak- 
Gibbero- ers of horizontal orbs. The nest is simply a 
Leafy 
Roof. 
sa’s Ham- : 
oaeOle hammock or net of crossed lines, commonly 
Nest. stretched between the edges of a leaf, which 
Bae je et AD are pulled up so as to make a slight concay- 
leaf. o, trapline. ; = ‘ ‘ ; 
ity. Beneath this spinningwork the spider suspends her- 
self, back downward, after the fashion of the Theridioids and the spinners 
of horizontal orbwebs. Her face is outward toward her snare, and the feet 
