Mrs. House-Spider 
ners for her dwelling-place. No spot 
suits her better than the dark spaces 
under the cellar stairway, or the dim re- 
cess behind a heavy piece of furniture. 
Her real name is Mrs. Theridion. 
She dresses in a dark-brown suit 
which is slightly mottled with white 
on the upper side of the abdomen. 
Her cephalo-thorax is small, while her 
abdomen is large and round, making 
her look like a ball as she hangs 
from her web. 
Her house is not so pretty as the 
tent-makers, nor so artistic as the ex- 
quisite lace wheels of the orb-weavers. 
At first sight you think it 1s nothing 
but an irregular mass of tangled threads. 
A closer look reveals that it is a mar- 
vellous piece of trestle-work, with an 
intricate network of threads crossing 
and recrossing each other, and with 
numberless cables stretching to the 
walls and floor on other supports. 
TT 

