270 FOOD OF INSECTS. 



Probably in this case, as in so many others, we bewilder ourselves by 

 attempting to make nature bend to generalities to which she disdains to 

 submit. Different spiders may lay the foundations of their net in a diffe- 

 rent manner; some on the plan adopted by E. Diadema;^ others, as 

 Lister long ago conjectured', by shooting out threads in the mode of the 

 flying species, as in the instances recorded by the anonymous observer, 

 and Mr. Knight. Nor is it improbable that the same species has the power 

 of varying its procedures according to circumstances. 



How far these suppositions are correct it is impossible to determine 

 without further experiments, which it is somewhat strange should not 

 before now have been instituted. Pliny thought it nothing to the credit 

 of the philosophers of his day, that while they were disputing about the 

 number of heroes of the name of Hercules, and the site of the sepulchre 

 of Bacchus, they should not have decided whether the queen bee had a 

 sting or not~ ; but it seems much more discreditable to the entomologists 

 of ours, that they should yet be ignorant how the geometric spiders fix 

 their nets. One excuse for them is, that these insects generally begin 

 their operations in the night, so that, though it is very easy to see them 

 spinning their concentric circles, it is seldom that they can be caught 

 laying the foundations of their snares. Yet doubtless the lucky moment 

 might be hit by an attentive observer, and I shall be glad if my attempt to 

 describe their more ordinary operations should induce you to aim at 

 signalizing yourself by the discovery. If you failed in solving every diffi- 

 culty, you would at least be rewarded by witnessing their industry, inge- 

 nuity, and patience. 



For the latter virtue they have no small occasion. Incapable of actively 

 pursuing their prey, they are dependent upon what chance conducts into 

 their toils, which, especially those spread in neglected buildings, often 

 remain for a long period empty. Even the geometrical spiders, which fix 

 themselves in the midst of a well-peopled district in the open air, have 

 frequently to sustain a protracted abstinence. A continued storm of wind 

 and rain will demolish their nets, and preclude the ))ossibility of recon- 

 structing them for many days or sometimes weeks, during which not even 

 a single gnat regales their sharp-set appetites. And when at length 

 formed anew or repaired, an unlucky bee or wasp, or an overgrown fly, 

 will perversely entangle itself in toils not intended for insects of its bulk, 

 and in disengaging itself once more leave the net in ruin. All these trials 

 move not our philosophic race. They patiently sit in their watching place 

 in the same posture, scarcely ever stirring but when the expected prey 

 appears. And however repeatedly their nets are injured or destroyed, as 

 long as their store of silk is unexhausted, they repair or reconstruct them 

 without loss of time. 



The web of a house-spider will, with occasional repairs, serve for a 

 considerable period ; but the nets of the geometric spiders are in favorable 

 weather renewed either wholly, or at least their concentric circles, every 

 twenty-four hours, even when not apparently injured. This difference 

 in the operations of the two tribes depends upon a very remarkable pecu- 

 liarity in the conformation of their snares. The threads of the house- 

 spider's web are all of the same kind of silk ; and flies are caught in them 



» Hist. Anim. Ang. p. 7. * Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 17. 



