138 DIVING WATER SPIDERS. 



December, and the Spider living quietly within, with her head 

 downwards. I made a rent in this cell and expelled the air, upon 

 which the Spider came out ; yet though she appeared to have 

 been laid up for three months in her winter quarters, she 

 greedily seized on and sucked an insect. The male, as well as 

 the female, constructs a'similar subaqueous cell, and during 

 summer as well as winter." One of these spiders was kept by 

 Mr. Rennie several months in a glass of water, where it built 

 a cell half submersed, in which it laid its eggs.* These are 

 enclosed in bags of yellow silk and are hatched in summer. 



But it is in the pages of Kirby and Spence that we find 

 the habitations and habits of this amphibious architect most 

 strikingly and pleasantly described.f " Her abode (say they) 

 built in water and formed of air, is constructed on philosophic 

 principles, and consists of a subaqueous, yet dry, apartment in 

 which, like a mermaid or a sea-nymph, she resides in comfort. 

 Loose threads, attached in various directions to the leaves of 

 aquatic plants, form the framework of her chamber. Over 

 these she spreads a transparent (elastic) varnish, like liquid 

 glass, which issues from the middle of her spinners ; next, she 

 spreads over her belly a pellicle of the same material, and 

 ascends to the surface " to inhale and carry down a supply of 

 atmospheric fluid. Head downwards, and with her body, all 

 but the spinneret, still submersed, our diver (by a process 

 which does not seem precisely ascertained) introduces a bubble 



* Insect Architect ure, p.366. f Introduction to Entomology. 



