THE SPINNING SISTERHOOD. 831 



of the cocoon, we can only guess, for we have not got at her opin- 

 ions as yet. 



Perhaps the most peculiar of the web-makers is figured by Prof. 

 Wilder, who calls the wise little spinner the triangle spider, from 

 the shape of her snare. From the point on a twig which she 

 selects for her resting-place, or roost, as the professor calls it, she 

 stretches a single line a few inches, and from that point spreads 

 four long, widely diverging lines like radii. Having done this, 

 she proceeds to cross these cables with viscid threads like the 

 rounds of a ladder, and, when completed about two thirds the 

 length of the radii, the whole web looks like three distinct ladders, 

 side by side. Everything arranged to her mind, the small archi- 

 tect retires to her post, the single thread from which the whole 

 hangs, and sets her trap by drawing up the slack and holding it 

 in a loop between her feet. In this strained position she remains 

 for hours with the motionless patience of her race. But let a fly 

 touch her web and she is wide awake on the instant. Her trick 

 then is to let the loop she has held go with a snap that jerks the 

 web and is sure to still further complicate the entanglement of the 

 struggling fly. If this is not enough to complete his capture, she 

 repeats the operation several times. Should he not be by this 

 time altogether subdued, she starts down her line, drawing a fresh 

 thread after her, cutting the old ones one after another, and, at 

 last, as the professor says, she gathers the entire net in her hands, 

 and throws it like a blanket over the prey. If this skillful little 

 trapper were not a poor little half-inch-long spider, what a won- 

 derful performance that would seem ! 



The triangle spider too is more amiable than some of her fam- 

 ily in giving her mate a share of her home. According to our 

 close observer of New Jersey, the little creature, about half the 

 size of his spouse, lives in an upper corner of her web, apparently 

 interested in the fly-catching business merely as a spectator. 

 Whether he ever makes a web, and where he gets his dinners, are 

 still unknown. 



Many attempts have been made to compel the "daughter of 

 Arachne " to work in harness, so to speak, and in consideration of 

 food and protection to give up her silken threads for our use, 

 as the silkworm contentedly does. Fortunately for her liberty, 

 she is a personage of so marked individuality that no way has yet 

 been devised competent to overcome her natural inclination to 

 have her own way. Prof. Wilder has given much study to the 

 subject of ways and means, and has, he thinks, perfected a plan by 

 which one of the strong- web spinners (Nephila plumipes) may be 

 trained to weave as well as to eat in our service. By this plan 

 each spinner is to have her own home, a wire ring surrounded by 

 water. She is to be fed with flies, which, alas ! are not to reduce 



