410 FOOD OF INSECTS. 



proper degree of tension. With the former view she 

 composes each line of five or six or even moi'e threads 

 glued together ; and with the latter she fixes to them 

 from different points a numerous and inti'icnte apparatus 

 of smaller threads. Having thus completed the founda- 

 tions of her snare ^, she proceeds to fill up the outline. 

 Attaching a thread to one of the main lines, she walks 

 along it, guiding it with one of her hind feet that it may 

 not touch in any part and be prematurely glued, and 

 crosses over to the opposite side, where by applying her 

 spinners she firmly fixes it. To the middle of this dia- 

 gonal thread, which is to form the centre of her net, 

 she fixes a second, which in like manner she conveys 

 and fastens to another part of the lines encircling the 

 area. Her work now proceeds rapidly. During the 

 preliminaiy operations she sometimes rests, as though 

 her plan required meditation. But no sooner are the 

 marginal lines of her net firmly stretched, and two or 

 three radii spun from its centre, than she continues her 

 labour so quickly and unremittingly that the eye can 

 scarcely follow her progress. The radii to the number 

 of about twenty, giving the net the appearance of a 

 wheel, are speedily finished. She then proceeds to the 

 centre, quickly turns herself round, and pulls each 

 thread with her feet to ascertain its strength, breaking 

 any one that seems defective and replacing it by another. 

 Next, she glues immediately round the centre five or six 

 small concentric circles, distant about half a line from 

 each other, and then four or five larger ones, each sepa- 



I am not certain whether the garden spider does not more fre- 

 quently form one or two of the principal radii of the net, before 

 she spins the exterior lines. 



