86 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



a more favorable issue. ^ We are inclined to sigli with the disappointed 

 enthusiast : " What a pity, and what a loss ! " Termeyer's line of inquiry 

 differed from Bon's, in that he took his silk principally from the living 

 subject, while Bon wrought from cocoons. 



Termeyer's attemjjt to reel silk was suggested by observing the manner 

 in which the spider extruded its spinningwork when swathing a fly. His 

 contrivance consisted of three parts : first, a body rest (Fig. 51), consisting 

 of a piece of cork slightly hollowed in the centre,^ and supported upon 

 a jjedestal ; second, a foil consisting of a bit of tinned iron (Fig. 51, b); 

 about an inch wide, having a curved notch in the bottom correspond- 

 ing with the cavity in the cork, on either side of which were soldered 

 two iron pins or wires (c, c) which were introduced into the cork. The 

 spider was placed u^jon the body rest, as shown at Fig. 53, so that the 

 foil falling between the corselet and tlie abdomen kept the spider in posi- 

 tion, and withheld the legs 

 from interfering with the 

 threads. 



When about to reel the 

 silk the Abbe gave his cap- 

 tive a fly, which was seized 

 with the feet and jaws, 

 and at the same time the 

 spinnerets were opened by 

 unconscious association of 

 ideas, and threads thrown 

 out as if to swathe the fly. 

 The end of this filament 

 was then attached to a 

 small reel four and a half 

 inches in diameter, with cylindrical arms of glass. (Fig. 52.) This was 

 slowly turned and the silk wound oif, as with the silk moth's cocoon. 

 Indeed, Termeyer wound upon the same reel a band of spider's silk and 

 a similar band of silk worm's silk, of which he remarks that the compari- 

 son shows evidently how much more brilliant and beautiful the first is 

 than the second, so bright that it appears more like a polished metal or 

 mirror than like silk. 



In more recent times tlie whole subject has been gone over by Professor 

 Wilder, now of Cornell University, New York. For several years, in various 



Fig. 51. Fif:. 52. Fig. 53. 



Abbe Termeyer's apparatus for reeling silk from living spiders. 



Fig. 51. Body rest and foil. Fig. 52. Reel. Fig. 53. Spider in 

 attitude for yielding to the reel. 



' Raimoiulo Maria de Termeyer, Ricerche e Sperimoiiti Sulla Seta ile Kaji'ii, Milan. 

 (Astor Library, New York.) We are indebted to Dr. Bert G. Wilder for a translation of 

 Termeyer's report of his experiments, which he pnlili.shed in Proc. Essex Institute, Salem, 

 Mass., 1867. ■ 



'' I have ventured here to insert this aivity, which is lacking in Termeyer's sketch, as 

 reproduced by '\\'ililer. 



