352 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
of the spider forming the snare, resulting from some morbid physiological 
condition? Could it be that an: Orbweaver had straggled upon the web of 
this Lineweaving species, and left some traces of her presence by emitting 
her peculiar viscid beads which, forming upon the retitelarian meshes, left 
the traces of the stranger’s presence? Could I have been mistaken ? 
I should not have ventured even to mention this experience had I not 
noticed the statement made by Mr. Edward H. Robertson,’ that the snare 
of Theridium neryosum in England is characterized by a similar armature. 
He states positively that house flies when trapped upon the snares of 
this species are held very tenaciously by the viscid globules which are dis- 
persed over the intersecting lines. I do 
not remember to have noticed this feature 
attributed to any Lineweaving 
Therid- species by any other observer. 
tum ner That it must be a rare phenom- 
vosum. ; 
enon is manifest from this fact; 
but may it not be that a more careful 
examination, with this point distinctly in 
view, will show results of a more decided 
character ? 
At all events, it is proper to say that 
there remains the possibility that one of 
the most striking industrial characteristics 
of the Orbweaying spiders may have been 
bestowed in some degree upon the tribe of 
Lineweavers whose species are most closely 
| related to the Orbitelarie, both im struct- 
{ ae ariiiiet difscus ase ure and economy. Thus in this partic- 
\\ |} viscid beads. ular, also, we are able to trace, though it 
must be confessed in a not very decided manner, an analogy between 
Orbweavers and at least two of the other tribes of Aranew, viz. Tube- 
weavers and Lineweavers. 
SET | 
yj} \* 1 F 
r\ 
III. 
In the preceding section I have shown how one may rise to the complex 
orbweb from the simplest form of snare—a few lines. It will perhaps 
equally illustrate the general harmony of habit which I have 
Another frequently pointed out, and the danger of fixing any arbitrary 
a Agee point from which development has progressed, if I show that one 
may reach the same terminus from a very different starting point, 
viz., the tubular snare. Indeed, my first conclusions settled upon this as 
the most natural point of departure, since (as I have heretofore shown) the 
1 “Science Gossip,” January, 1868, page 12. 
= 
