TEACHERS' LEAFLET No. S2. 



SPIDERS. 



BY JOHN HENRY COMSTOCK. 



F all of our little neighbors of the fields there are 

 none that are more universally shunned and feared 

 than spiders, and few that deserve it less. Tliere is 

 a wide-spread belief that spiders are dangerous, that 

 they are liable to bite, and that their bites are very 

 venomous. Now this may be true of certain lai'ge 

 species that live in hot countries ; but the spiders of the Northern 

 United States are practically harmless. 



It is true, spiders bite and inject venom sufficient to kill a fly into 

 the wound made by their jaws. But they are exceedingly shy 

 creatures, fearing man more than they are to be feared. If an 

 ol)server will refrain fi-om picking up a spider* there is not the 

 slightest danger of being l)itten by one; and excepting a single 

 uncommon species no spider is known in this part of the country 

 Avhose bite would seriously affect a human being. 



On tlie other hand, spiders do much to keep in check various 

 insect pests, and hence must be regarded as our friends. It is, how- 

 ever, from a different point of view that we wish to look upon them 

 at this time. It is as illustrations of remarkable development of 

 instinctive powers, and of wonderful correlation of structure and 

 habit, that we would have the reader study these creatures. The 

 teacher of nature-study can find no more available or more fertile 

 field from which to take subjects for interesting children in the 

 world about us. Let us then put aside our fears and go into the 

 fields and see if we learn something of the ways of these spinners. 



The Funnel-web Weavers. 



Often on summer mornings the grass of tiie roadsides and fields 

 is seen to be carpeted with little sheets of glistening silk, the webs 

 of the grass-spider. None w^ere observed the day before ; and we 

 wonder at the sudden appearance of this host of weavers. Later 



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