Superfamily Argiopoidea 



in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, 

 Oct. 1865, and in the Atlantic Monthly for August, 1866; but no 

 practical application has been made of them in this country. In 

 Madagascar, however, the French have founded schools for the 

 instruction of the natives in the methods of rearing the spiders, and 



Fig. 442. NEPHILA CLAVIPES, WEB OF AN OLD SPIDETt; 

 ONE HALF OF THIS WEB HAS BEEN RECENTLY REPAIRED 



in winding, spinning, and weaving the silk. I have not at hand 

 information as to what is being done by the Chinese. 



The method of obtaining the silk from these spiders is very 

 different from that in which the silk of the silkworm is procured, 

 which is by unwinding the cocoons. It is also different from that 

 used in the earlier attempts to utilize the silk of spiders, which 

 was by carding the silk of the' egg-sacs. The silk of Nephila is 

 obtained by pulling it directly from the body of the living spider. 



The full-grown spider is fastened in a tiny stanchion which 

 fits over the body between the cephalothorax and the abdomen, 

 in such a way that the spider is firmly held without injury, and 



432 



