146 DRAGON" FLIES YH. MOSQUITOES. 



and how various, too, the forms of sphiningwork that 

 meet him. All over this new plowed field he will find 

 them ; in yonder meadow, also, hanging by myriads upon 

 myriads on the grasses. Along that hedgerow they are 

 nested and have woven their dainty snares. In the 

 branches of these shrubs and on the foliao;e of vender 

 trees are other hosts. If one Mill })ush back the fi»liage 

 he will see yet others, spiders of the wandering grouj^, 

 that stalk their prey as do the wild beasts of the forests, 

 crouching on trunk and branches and lurking among the 

 leaves. If one tui-ns to the earth other myriads are seen 

 whose homes are on the ground or Avho build slight webs 

 close to the surface. These have laid the ax at the very 

 root of the tree, and are destroying the insects ere they 

 rise from the surface to visit our homes. All these un- 

 numbered multitudes of spiders are engaged during every 

 moment of their existence in waging relentless war upon 

 the insect world. AVhen one considers how many spitlcrs 

 there are, and that they all thus feed upon their natural 

 food, the insects, he may form some just conception of 

 how needful they are to mankind. I do not hesitate to 

 say that, unless Nature should provide some equivalent in 

 the way of check upon insects, man could not dwell in 

 many inhabited parts of the world, were it not for the 

 friendly service of spiders. 



But do the spiders have a special taste for mosquitoes ? 

 it may be asked. They take what conies to tiiem, and 

 Tvhen mosquitoes are abundant mosquitoes are taken. I 

 have counted in an orbweaver's snare, spun upon the railing 

 of the long bridge over Deal Lake, New Jersey, thirty- 

 eight mosquitoes at one time hanging entangled upon the 

 viscid spirals. Times without number have I seen like 



