400 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



The above facts, uncovering as they do so hard a destiny impending 

 over every stage of aranead life, miglit well awake sjnnpathy in the breast 

 of the most pronounced spider hater. To those who know the usefulness 

 to man of the much enduring race, and view its destruction from the 

 standpoint of human disadvantage, the facts are melancholy enough. But 

 after all there seems a judicial fitness in the order of things which ajj- 

 points avengers from the midst of the insect world against the chief de- 

 stroyer of the insect hosts. Seeing, therefore, that some check is required 

 upon the excessive increase of spiders, we may regard their relation to 

 tlie Hymenoptera with some complacency from the view point of natural 

 iustice. 



Fig. 339. Nest of Vireo iioveborocensis woven together, \vith bands and threads 

 of plundered spider webs. 



IX. 



In speaking of the enemies of tlie spider we have thus far omitted 



one of the most determined and destructive — man himself. But it will be 



observed that I have been writing of the natural enemies of 



Foolishly spiJers, and in my opinion man cannot reasonabl}' be classed 



among these. His ho.stility to the various families of tiie spider 



world is without reason not only, but is against reason. It is an 



example of indulgence in a prejudice which has been long fostered by 



Man. 



