Fig. 31.
The round-web spiders are said to repair their webs by tearing out a dirty, tangled piece, and putting a new one in its place. Wilder says that Nephila plumipes tears off and replaces half the web at one time. Epeira vulgaris often takes away an old web, and puts a new one in the same place, tearing down the old in pieces, and putting in the rays of the new as it goes along. The spider walks on the nearest sound thread, and gathers in with her front-feet as much old web as she can tear off, and rolls it up with her palpi and mandibles into a ball, and, when it is tight enough not to stick to the web, drops it. As she walks along, gathering up the old web in front, she at the same time spins a new thread behind, and, when she gets to a suitable place, makes it fast as one of the rays of the new web. The common story has it, that the spider eats the old web. She certainly gathers it up in her mouth, and sometimes throws it away at once, but at other times sits and chews it a long time, with apparent pleasure.
Most of the Epeiridæ are brightly colored, and make no attempt at concealment when in the web. Others have odd shapes and colors, and hang in the web in such positions that they look like any thing but animals. Some species draw up their legs against their triangular abdomens, and look like bits of bark fallen into the web. Others are long and slender, and when at rest, either in the web or out, lay their legs close together before and behind their bodies, so as to look like straws. Others have oddly shaped abdomens, as [Fig. 32], under which the rest of the body is partly concealed.
Fig. 32.
Epeira caudata, a common gray spider, living in the wood, collects pieces of insects and other rubbish, and arranges it in a line up and down, across the centre of the web. The spider stands in the centre, and from a short distance can hardly be distinguished from the rubbish. She also hides her cocoons in the web, in the same line of dirt.
The size of the web is usually proportioned to that of the spider; but Epeira displicata, which is quarter of an inch long, makes a web only two or three inches in diameter, on the ends of branches of bushes, where it is shaken about, and sometimes blown to pieces, by the wind.
As the spider stands in her web, and feels a slight shake, such as would be caused by a sudden wind, she draws her legs together, pulling the rays tighter, and so making the whole web steady. If, however, the spider is frightened, and has no time to escape, she throws her body back and forth as a man does in a swing, and thus shakes the web so rapidly, that the spider can hardly be seen. The most usual habit, when alarmed, is to drop to the ground, and lie there as if dead.