342 i AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
any relation to other species of its tribe. Yet it is certainly interesting 
to observe the varieties of use to which this implement has been placed, 
and to observe that a seemingly rudimentary implement and incidental 
service in one species, as Epeira strix or Epiblemum scenicum, become in 
another and widely separated species a special instrument and a complex 
and permanent habit. 
VU 
In the foregoing section we have traced the connection between the 
primitive dragline and the traplines by which snares are operated, and 
_ have noted the relations or points of resemblance 
eee fetween the various forms of trapline among Orb- 
weavers, from the simplest to the most complex. 
We may now attempt a like service for the entire sys- 
tem of trapping spinningwork known as 
the snare. In this undertaking I propose 
to go beyond the field of orbwebs, and 
take into the view the characteristic snares 
of all the aranead tribes. 
Let us suppose, again, that the original form of spinningwork was the 
single line which has been alluded to as the dragline, and whose relation- 
_ _ ship we have just traced into the various forms of snares made 
The Origi-}y Orbweavers. If now we venture further to suppose that the 
nal Spin- , : : 3 ; 
ninearonle spider always possessed the habit which is strongly apparent in 
such tribes as the Lineweavers and Orbweavers, of moving rest- 
lessly to and fro between twigs and leaves, spinning out a single thread, 
Fic. 332. The original spinning thread— 
the dragline, a. 
= —<— =~ ——S>—! _— : — = 
Fic. 333. The meshed snare of Theridium, thickened at the top, and supported by 
silken trestles. 
and making anchorages and attachments as it moves (Fig. 332), we easily 
arrive at the form of snare characteristic of Lineweavers. 
These straggling lines, crossed at all angles, would soon, and without 
