A female Micrathena duodecimspinosa (O. P. Cambridge, 1890) used the elasticity of her long dragline to repeatedly jerk her newly constructed egg sac up and down as she lowered it into the leaf litter below. Jerking may reduce the chances that the sac will be entangled in vegetation before it reaches the leaf litter or help insert it deeper into the litter, where it is visually camouflaged.
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1 November 2015
How Micrathena duodecimspinosa (Araneae: Araneidae) uses the elasticity of her dragline to hide her egg sac
William G. Eberhard
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The Journal of Arachnology
Vol. 43 • No. 3
November 2015
Vol. 43 • No. 3
November 2015
camouflage
Orb weaver
oviposition