SPIDERS AND THEIR WAYS. 



799 



of tlie two sexes, marked enough in all spiders, is greatly exag- 

 gerated in tliese two species, of which the male is a mere myrmi- 

 don by the side of the fe- 

 male (Fig. 11). 



In the Mediterranean 

 countries, pretty epeiras, 

 mostly of a silvery luster, 

 fabricate a web with regu- 

 lar meshes and having a sin- 

 gular attachment, the use of 

 which was first discovered 

 by M. Vinson by observing 

 one of the species common 

 to Mauritius and Reunion. 

 The webs are distinguished 

 by a single silvery thread 

 of enormous size compared 

 with the other threads, run- 

 ning across them in zigzag 

 folds. Not having seen any 

 use made of this cable, M. 

 Vinson cut it several times. 

 It was replaced in a few 

 hours. Flies and small in- 

 sects flying against the web 

 were seized and bound with- 

 out calling this thread into 

 use. Finally, a large grass- 

 hopper was ensnared, when in an instant the spider undid the 

 large thread and quickly bound up in it the nimble giant, against 

 which cords strong enough to hold flies would count for nothing. 

 This, then^ was its purpose, and it is hardly possible sufficiently 

 to admire the instinct that prompted the preparation of it. 



While most of the epeiras are lovers of the daylight, a few of 

 them are active at night. Some species of the Mascarene Islands 

 and Madagascar weave webs in the twilight which they destroy 

 at dawn. During the day they hide under heaps of leaves which 

 they have gathered up into a kind of nest. Their webs are coarse- 

 ly spun, as becomes a nomad who has to pitch his tent anew every 

 night, and has no time to waste in elegance. Some of them, how- 

 ever, are not satisfied to pass their days in heaps of leaves, but 

 construct a kind of nest out of thin silk as a more eligible hab- 

 itation. Of these more refined spiders, the Epe'ira Borhoyiica, 

 with its cherry-colored body and lustrous black legs, fixes its night- 

 web and its day-tent to the roofs of houses, the projections of 

 rocks, and the branches of large trees. The much larger lilac- 



FiG. 10.— Supposed Cocoon (Egg-Case) op the Tri- 

 angle Spider {HypUofes Amencanus). A, the 

 cocoon, of natural eize, hung by thread-lines be- 

 tween hemlock twigs ; B, the cocoon enlarged, 

 seen obliquely, so as to show the triangular base. 



