266 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



It frequently occurs that the insects entangled upon a snare are never 



used by the spider ; although a most voracious creature, her ap- 



Unused petite is necessarily limited, and, at all events, she becomes some- 



1 ff^^ what dainty as her appetite is satisfied, and will not trouble her- 



Insects. ^^^^ "^'i^^ insects of a minor sort. Indeed, many large spiders, 



except when very hungry, pay no attention to the small insects 

 strung upon their webs. 



It is surprising how many of these will be arrested in the course of the 

 day. I have counted as many as two hundred and thirty-six insects, great 



and small, hanging upon various parts of the web of Epeira 

 A Mos- sclopetaria, after the proprietor had abandoned the day's work 

 ^^ ° and retired to her nest to await the evening meal. One day, 



while crossing the long bridge over Deal Lake, Asbury Park, I 

 stopped to count the number of insects upon a web spun just beneath the 

 bridge, and noticed that thirty-six mosquitoes had been entangled. Cer- 

 tainly this was a goodly amount of service for one spider to render a most 

 unappreciative and ungrateful humanity. 



A friend has recently been deeply interested in the problem whether 

 dragon flies, or, as they are sometimes called, mosquito hawks, might not be 

 reared in sufficient numbers along the seashore to keep in check the immense 

 number of mosquitoes that sometimes make life at our watering places very 

 unsatisfactory to guests. There is no telling what artificial propagation 

 may accomplish in this direction, and, at all events, all experiments in 

 natural science are worthy of consideration until they are demonstrated 

 to be impracticable. But I venture to suggest that the most effective nat- 

 ural checks upon the increase of insect pests are their natural enemies, 

 the spiders. If men would abate the unreasonable prejudice which they 

 have against this most friendly and helpful animal, they probably would 

 suffer less from the raids of that piping and piercing pest, the American 

 mosquito. 



The spider is doubtless Nature's chief check against the undue increase 

 of insects. Despised Arachne is entitled by her services to occupy the chief 



place among invertebrate philanthropists. She is, I might al- 

 Nature's ^ost say, absolutely harmless to mankind. With the exception 

 J ^*^ ° of an occasional alleged "spider bite" issuing in suffering or 



death, and delivered by the traditional and indefinite " black 

 spider," I know of no evil that can be charged against her. True, as long 

 ago the wise Proverbialist said, "The spider taketh hold with hands, and 

 is in king's palaces." ^ She builds her cobwebs in our homes, but there 

 is no harm in that. If one will take the pains to study the cobwebs, they 

 will be found beautiful structures, and, at all events, the housewife can 

 brush them away without encouraging hatred for the harmless creature 



^ Holy Scripture, Proverbs xxx. 28. 



