1972] 
Eberhard — A chaearanea tesselata 
211 
directly to it and began wrapping it, or bit it immediately if it was 
small. After wrapping a larger prey, the spider bit it, cut a hole 
in the platform around it, climbed into the mesh above, and carried 
it dangling from a line held by one leg IV to the retreat where it 
often wrapped it further before beginning to feed. If the prey was 
detained in the mesh above the platform, the spider shook the web 
until it fell, or climbed through the platform and attacked it in the 
mesh above. Holes cut in the platform to extract prey were filled 
the next night so as to be nearly indistinguishable from the sur- 
rounding platform. 
It was not uncommon to find immatures in the webs of adult 
females, and these were seen clustered around and apparently feed- 
ing on prey caught in these webs. This type of behavior is appar- 
ently common in theridiids (Kullmann 1969, Shear 1970). 
Discussion 
The web of A. tesselata is very distinct from that of the common 
house spider A. tepidariorum , but is apparently similar to those of 
an A chaearanea sp. from Afganistan (Kullmann 1970) and A. dis- 
parata (Darchen 1968 in Kullmann 1970). Kullmann’s drawing 
of the web of the A chaearanea sp. from Afganistan differs from A. 
tesselata webs in having sticky threads radiating from the spider’s 
retreat and ending just above the platform, but such lines are not 
distinguishable in his photograph, nor are they mentioned in his 
discussion. The A. tepidariorum web is a mesh with no well-defined 
platform, has drops of sticky fluid on lines attached to the ground, 
and has no well-defined retreat, the spider sitting near or at the edge 
of the web during the day (McCook 1889, Kaston 1948, pers. obs.). 
The A. tepidariorum web seems designed to capture mainly walking 
prey, while the A. tesselata type web seems designed exclusively for 
flying prey. 
The “platform with mesh above and below” design of A . tesse- 
lata s web is the basic plan of the webs of several distantly related spi- 
ders including Diguetia (Diguetidae) (Cazier and Mortenson 1962), 
Cyrtophora (Araneidae) (McCook 1889), and several genera of 
linyphiids (see Nielson 1928, and Kaston 1948 for example). Greater 
thickness of the upper mesh and the particular form of the platform, a 
gently sloping dish with downward projecting “pimples”, are common 
in these genera, occurring in the webs of Cyrtophora (Kullmann 1958), 
Diguetia (Eberhard 1967, although neither the slope nor the pimples 
are especially clear in the photograph), and the linyphiid Frontinella 
(Kaston 1948), as well as in webs of A . tesselata. However Cyrto - 
