xni] SPINNING APPARATUS AND FEET 115 



spigots (a) on the anterior spinnerets, and it can 

 easily be separated into two and two only any 

 where along its length. The multitudinous spools 

 have emitted short lengths of silk to anchor the 

 foundation line at its commencement, but thev are 



/ 



then closed and have no share in the ever-lengthening 

 line as the spider lets itself drop or crawls away to 

 attach it to a new spot. One of their uses, then, is 

 to anchor the main lines from the spigots to external 

 objects, but they have another function not less 

 important. Everybody has seen a garden-spider 

 trussing up a captured fly. It is held in the jaws 

 and front legs and slowly revolved while with its 

 hind legs the spider draws out bands of silk from the 

 spinnerets and swathes it like a mummy. No silken 

 rope, this, of fused or interwoven threads, but a 

 broad band, every strand of which is separate and 

 distinct and proceeds from a different spool. Two or 

 three hundred fine threads wound simultaneously 

 round the insect form a much more effectual winding 

 sheet than would a single cord composed of them all. 

 So far we have accounted for the spools, and for 

 one pair of spigots those on the anterior spinnerets. 

 The lower spigot (b) on the middle spinneret often 

 assists in laying down a foundation line when extra 

 strength is required. In that case the line is four- 

 fold, and can easily be split into four along its whole 

 length, the threads from the middle spinnerets being 



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