52 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



On the Nephila Plumipes, or Silk Spider. By Burt G. Wil- 

 der, S. B., late Surgeon 55th Mass. Vols. 



At the north end of Folly Island, which lies just south from the har- 

 bor of Charleston, S. C, on the 20th of August, 1863, I found in a tree 

 a large and very handsome geometrical spider, whose web was about 

 three feet in diameter. While examining the insect at my tent, it oc- 

 curred to me to see how much of the silken thread could be drawn from 

 the spinners. As it was not disturbed by pulling out a few yards, I 

 wound the thread around a quill, and then, by turning this in my fin- 

 gers, reeled off silk from the body of the spider for one hour and a quar- 

 ter, at the rate of six feet per minute, making one hundred and fifty 

 yards of most beautifully shining golden silk. This specimen is still in 

 my possession, and, having been removed from the quill, weighs one 

 third of a grain. I had never before seen this spider, nor had I ever 

 heard of this method of obtaining a silken material ; but when, during 

 the following summer, another officer of our regiment * described to me 

 a large spider as very common upon Long Island, which lies just west 

 from Folly Island, I knew it was the same, and told him what I had 

 done, adding that I was sure something would come of it in time. 

 By substituting a cylinder worked by a handle for mine turned in the 

 fingers, this officer obtained more of the silk, winding it upon rings of 

 hard rubber, and afterward, by using a " gear-drill stock," another offi- 

 cer f accomplished similar results still more rapidly. 



With this "gear-drill stock" I wound from a number of spiders three 

 thousand four hundred and eighty yards of silk upon the periphery and 

 over the sides of a hard rubber ring ; the length being accurately meas- 

 ured by multiplying the dimensions of the ring where wound upon by 

 the number of revolutions per minute, and this product by the number 

 of minutes of actual winding. This was in the fall of 1864, and in 

 February, 1865, I showed specimens of the spider and of the silk to 

 Professors Wyman, Agassiz, and Cooke of Harvard University, neither 

 of whom had ever heard of this way of obtaining silk, nor, with the 

 exception of Professor Wyman, — who found a single individual among 

 some specimens collected at the South, — had they ever seen the in- 

 sect. At this time, too, a friend J to whom the whole history of the 



* Major Sigourney Wales, 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. 

 t Lieut. -Col. Charles B. Fox, 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 

 t Dr. William Nichols of Boston. 



