32 
Psyche 
[Vol. 89 
is in turn attached distally to a leaf or branch. The cone has a non- 
sticky spiral and a few irregularly-spaced, jagged turns of cribellar 
silk. This jagged sticky spiral is a continuation of the innermost 
sticky spiral loop in the rim (Figs. 2, 4). 
The hub of the inner orb (Fig. 2) is similar to that of other 
uloborid orbs, e.g. U. diver sus (Eberhard, 1972), and its spiral 
continues outward to form the non-sticky spiral of the inner orb. 
There is always a large gap between the last turn of this spiral and 
the innermost loop of sticky rim spiral (Figs. 1, 2). 
Sticky spiral loops in the rim are more tightly spaced than are 
either the non-sticky spiral loops of the inner orb and cone or the 
cone’s sticky spiral. The outermost loop of rim spiral often follows a 
zigzagging path, with some segments of the sticky silk found on the 
radii (Figs. 2, 3). This zigzagging was more pronounced in some 
webs than in others and was generally most evident on the side of 
the orb which was larger (the orbs were rarely perfectly symmetrical). 
Variations on this basic pattern were seen. Webs of immatures 
frequently had only a narrow rim, sometimes with only a single loop 
of sticky spiral. Some webs had a few loops of sticky spiral on the 
inner orb, with the non-sticky spiral left intact (Fig. 4). Webs of two 
adult females and several immatures had thin linear stabilimenta at 
their inner hubs. Adult males were found sitting on webs similar to 
those of immatures, but it was not determined if these were of their 
own construction. Adult males did not build webs in captivity. 
Web Building Behavior 
Web building by two adult females was observed from start to 
finish and various stages of web construction were seen on four 
other occasions. Durations of different stages of construction were 
noted for one of the adult females. Web construction began late at 
night or in early pre-dawn hours. The inner orb and cone of the old 
web were probably removed early in the night, but this behavior was 
not observed. One WEI female was found sitting at the center of a 
rudimentary web consisting of a partly collapsed rim and a few radii, 
and had a ball of silk in her mouthparts which shrank visibly as it 
wasj(presumably) ingested. This spider removed the rest of the rim 
and added the material to the ball of silk in her chelicerae before 
building the new web. Reusing frame threads from the previous 
web, the spider began construction by laying new radii. 
