INSECTS AND THEIR NEAR RELATIVES. 25 



sists of loose flossy silk (Fig. 24). One of the most common 

 kinds is very flat, silvery in color, and is 

 firmly attached to stones lying upon the 

 ground (Fig 25) 



Every on" knows that a spider wishing 

 to descend to some place beneath it simply 

 fastens a line to the object which it is 

 upon and then drops boldly off, regulat- FlG 25 ._ EK? . sac o a 

 ing the rate of its descent by spinning 

 the line rapidly or slowly ; when the spider wishes to return, 

 it has only to climb up the same line. 



Frequently spiders pass from point to point in a hori- 

 zontal direction by means of silken bridges. These are 

 formed in this way : The spider spins out a thread, which is 

 carried off by a current in the air. After a time the thread 

 strikes some object and adheres to it ; then the spider pulls 

 the lin? tight, and fastens it where it is standing. It then 

 has a bridge, along which it can easily run. 



But more remarkable than either of these uses of silk for 

 locomotion is the fact that many spiders are able to travel 

 long distances, hundreds of miles, through the air by means 

 of these silken threads 



"sailing mid the golden air 

 In skiffs of yielding gossamere." (Hogg.) 



The Aeronautic Spiders, or Flying Spiders, as they are 

 more commonly called, are frequently very abundant, espe- 

 cially in warm autumn days. At such times innumerable 

 threads can be seen streaming from fences, from bushes, and 

 the tips of stalks of grass, or floating through the air. The 

 flying spider climbs to some elevated point, which may be 

 merely the tip of a stalk of grass, and then, standing on the 

 tips of its feet, lifts its body as high as it can, and spins out 

 a thread of silk. This thread is carried up and away by a 

 current of air. When the thread is long enough the force of 

 the air current on it is sufficient to buoy the spider up. It 



