796 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



which is composed of many genera (Fig. 7) ; but the family is one 

 of which the members are all so alike that they all bear the same 

 general signs and pursue the same kind of industry. The epeiras 

 weave webs of enormous proportions, with large, regular meshes. 

 As they work in broad daylight, among the most beautiful features 

 of nature, it is possible to follow them in all 

 their operations, which are performed as if ex- 

 pressly to charm a philosopher. The spectacle 

 may be witnessed every summer in the parks 

 and gardens of Paris in the webs of the Epe'ira 

 diadema, which sometimes obstruct the streets. 

 This spider is of a reddish-yellow color, marked 

 on the upper part in dark hues with a figure that 

 has been compared with the cross of St. Denis. 

 Posted on a branch of privet, lilac, or cytissus, it 



'''°( J;^-™aS"r^ P^^*5 ^0^^*^ a ^li^ead of silk which lengthens out 

 under the very eye of the observer, and, caught 

 up by the lightest breath of air, at last fastens itself to the limb of a 

 shrub, often at a considerable distance from the point of departure. 

 Subsequently the spinner herself mounts the aerial cord, and 

 fastens it to the place where it has fixed itself, adjusting its posi- 

 tion if necessary. The most skilled balancers in the circus would 

 lose in the comparison with the epeira of the gardens, which 

 manoeuvres in every kind of attitude, upon a thread of extreme 

 tenuity, with an ease and agility that defy all parallel. Threads 

 carried to new points of support among the branches are adjusted 

 so as to form a polygonal framework. This done, the spider returns 

 upon the bridge which it first threw over, and stopping exactly in 

 the middle, as if it had calculated the spot geometrically, it drops, 

 head down, hanging to a thread which would divide the polygon 

 in two. At the central point is fixed a fleck of silk that serves as 

 a support to all the rays which diverge regularly to the periphery. 

 The frame is made, but a final operation remains to be completed. 

 An agglutinating thread must be stuck upon the rays, so as to 

 form a spiral. The epeira comes to the center of the web, draws 

 the thread, which it attaches to the fleck of silk, and passes from 

 ray to ray, describing circles away out to the exterior line of the 

 frame. It will finish its work by returning from the circumfer- 

 ence to the center, to interpose new circles between the former ones. 

 It is impossible to realize a more sagacious combination to obtain 

 a charming network, a lace of more admirable perfection (Fig. 8). 

 Accidents will happen to the web of the epeira. Gusts of wind 

 during storms, or the stroke of a bird's wing, may mar its useful- 

 ness. The skillful spinner is only slightly affected by a disaster 

 of the kind, for in less than an hour it will construct a new net- 

 work. It is in cases where the web has suffered a single tear that 



