234 



AMERICAN Sl'IDEKS AND THEIR SPINNINUWORK. 



Acci- 

 dental 

 Assem- 

 blage. 



quite beyond the power of human art. These orbs were not all of one 

 dimension, although multitudes did agree in size, but they were nearly 

 all of two species, Epcira strix and Epeira triaranea, principally the former. 

 They were undoubtedly composed of several broods of these ara- 

 neads, of an ctjual age, who had, under favorable circumstances, 

 been distributed in the same vicinity.' I may here again refer 

 (see Vol. I., page 64) to the numerous colonies of Epeira sclo- 

 petaria which domicile within a limited area upon the surfaces 

 of the boat houses at Atlantic City and Cape May, as another example 

 of accidental rather than gregarious assemblage. These colonies spin their 



orbs between the outer walls, 

 above the Inlet waters and 

 hang the snares to foundation 

 lines ten and fifteen feet long. 

 (Fig. 256.) 



My notes show several ob- 

 servations of this kind : At 

 the summit of a tall branch- 

 ing weed had been woven a 

 large orbweb, which, probably 

 after it had been abandoned, 

 was occupied by a group of 

 young Epeiroids, Furrow spi- 

 ders. These little settlers, with 

 a fine acquisitiveness that sug- 

 gested the once famous Amer- 

 ican theory of " squatter sov- 

 ereignty," had seized upon the 

 araneal commons, and every 

 one appropriating to itself a 

 corner or segment of the ter- 

 ritory, had woven a small orb- 

 web. These snares were pitched 

 between the radii, which in 

 places were cut away, and 

 which made excellent founda- 

 tion lines. (Fig. 257.) This certainly seemed a canny operation, and might 

 have been held to savor of economy did not one know the prodigality of 

 spiders in the matter of their spinningwork. 



This use of large abandoned webs I have elsewhere seen afield and also 

 around houses, once in a hotel outbuilding, once in a broken window of a 



Flo. 257. Young Orbwcavers nested on an adult snare. 



' I have observed the same phenomenon at the ■•'i.sh IIousi' of the liistoiic ilul) in the 

 "State of Scliuylkill," on the ImuiUh of the Schuylkill River in I'liiladelpliia. 



