The Common Spiders of the United StatesEmerton, J. H. (James Henry)
Science
The Common Spiders of the United States
Emerton, J. H. (James Henry)
Spiders -- United States
The web (fig. 222) is flat
and shaped according to the surrounding objects to which it is fastened,
with a tube at one side in which the spider hides. The eggs are laid in
August and September in a flat cocoon, attached by one side in some
sheltered place and covered with silk, often mixed with dirt. Most of
the adult spiders die before winter, and females are often found dead on
or near their cocoons. The young hatch in the winter and leave the
cocoon early in the spring, and soon begin to build their webs among the
short grass. The webs become more distinct when covered with dew, but,
though too transparent to be seen at other times, they remain in the
same places throughout the summer and are repaired and enlarged as the
spider grows. If, however, the web should be destroyed, the spider is
able in one day to make a new one as large as the old, but thin and
transparent. The web contains many long threads crossing it from one
side to the other and nearly parallel, and these are crossed in all
directions by finer threads (fig. 226). The long threads are spun from
the lower spinnerets, the upper pair being held up over the back, out of
the way. The fine threads are spun from the upper spinnerets, which are
swung from side to side as the spider moves along. There is nothing
adhesive about the web. It serves merely as a clearing where insects may
alight to rest and the spider may have a good chance to run after them.
Where the web is made under plants or rocks a great number of threads
are carried upward from it, which may help in stopping insects (fig.
227), as they do in the webs of Linyphia. (See p. 135.)
[Illustration: FIGS. 228, 229. Tegenaria derhamii.--228, female enlarged
four times. 229, front of head.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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