J. H. Emerton

“ It usually stands in the most sheltered part of the web, where a part of it is more closely woven than the rest, but not enough so to conceal the spider. It occasionally makes the web in an open place where there is no shelter above, and then it sometimes carries a piece of leaf into the web and hides under it, as is the usual habit with some allied species. The webs of the young are usually more regular in form than those of adults (figs. 256, 257) . A male and female often occupy the same web for a long time. ”

“ The moss and dead leaves in the woods are alive with spiders; even in summer some species always live there, and in winter the young of those that in warm weather live among the bushes find shelter where they can remain torpid through the cold season without freezing.
The eggs of spiders are covered with silk, forming a cocoon which varies much in shape and color in different species. ”

“ In some individuals of either sex the black on the cephalothorax forms a wide band in the middle, almost covering the back, and a black stripe of similar width extends backwards on the abdomen for half its length. These black-striped individuals have all the other variations of color and markings. The males have all the colors and spots brighter and the legs longer than the females. The mandibles of the male are longer than those of the female and have at the base, in front, a low conical point. ”

“ The basal joints of the legs are light in color, and the sternum and mouth parts dark. The abdomen is green, darker from front to back, where it is almost black around the spinnerets. In the middle is a large double spot of bright copper red, and the red spots at the end of the body show as plainly from below as from above, and around the middle spot are several small spots of bright yellow. The hairs and spines of the legs are so fine that they do not much affect the general color. ”

“ Agrœca pratensis.—A little light-colored spider, resembling the next species, Anyphæna incerta. It is about a fifth of an inch long. The cephalothorax is wide behind and low in front and highest near the dorsal groove. The head is contracted in front of the legs more than it is in incerta. The front row of eyes is nearly straight, the middle pair only a little the higher (fig. 33) . The upper row is longer and more curved, with all the eyes about the same distance apart, the middle pair not so much separated as in incerta. The abdomen is widest behind, but not as wide as in incerta. ”

“ The spider hangs in the web with the abdomen directed upward, and when alarmed swings itself around rapidly so that it can hardly be seen. The egg cocoon is so thin that it does not conceal the eggs and is carried about in the spider's mandibles until the young hatch out. ”

“ After taking hold of the ray with the fourth foot, the spider turns down the abdomen so as to place the spinnerets against the ray and fastens the thread to it, at the same time holding the thread off with the other fourth foot to prevent its sticking to anything around it. The whole making of the web seems to be done entirely by feeling and is done as well in the dark as in daylight.
When the spider is active and the food supply good, a fresh web is made every day, the old one being torn down and thrown away. ”

“ In some cases, where the genera are large and well defined, separate descriptions are given of each genus, but where the genus is not easy to distinguish or represented by only a few species, there is no separate generic description, and the species are placed next to those of other genera to which they are most closely related. ”

“ The names of spiders, like those of other animals, have been given to them independently by different persons, so that many of them have more than one name, and the more common the spider the larger the number of names. In this book only one name is usually given to each species, and the name used is one that has been published with a description of the species in some other well-known book. ”

“ The gait is often sidewise, the legs kept close to the ground, so that the spider can move in a narrow crack. They live under stones and bark and leaves, and some, like triguttatus, on low plants. The males have longer legs and smaller abdomen and all the dark markings larger and darker than the females. In triguttatus there is great difference between the sexes, but in most species very little, as in limbatus and stomachosus. ”

“ The legs, which are plain in adults, are sometimes marked with rings in the young. The front end of the stripe is sometimes divided into two. These spiders live on bushes, without any web, until they have young. In the latter part of summer the females carry their flat cocoons under them, holding on with the mandibles. When the young are about to hatch the female builds a mass of web (fig. 217) three or four inches through, in which she leaves the cocoon, and the young come out and live for a time together in the web. ”