368 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



down a step upon which she stands to form a second; 

 and so on, as any one may try by placing a spider 

 at the bottom of a very clean wine glass. 



The hairs of the legs, however, are always catching 

 bits of web and particles of dust; but these aie not 

 suffered to remain long. Most people may have re- 

 marked that the house-fly is ever and anon brushhig 

 its feet upon one another to rub off the dust, though 

 we have not seen it remarked in authors, that spiders 

 are equally assiduous in keeping themselves clean 

 They have, besides, a more efficient instrument than 

 the fly, in their mandibles or jaws, which, like their 

 claws, are furnished with teeth; and a spider which 

 appears to a careless observer as resting idly, in nine 

 cases out of ten, will be found slowly combing her 

 legs with her mandibles, beginning as high as pos- 

 sible on the thigh, and passing down to the claws. 

 The flue which she thus combs off is regularly tossed 

 away. 



With respect to the house-spider (^Jl. domeslica), 

 we are told in books, that she " from time to time 

 clears away the dust from her web, and sweeps the 

 whole by giving it a shake with her paw so nicely 

 proportioning the force of her blow, that she never 

 breaks any thing."* That spiders may be seen 

 shaking their webs in this manner, we readily 

 admit; though it is not, we imagine, to clear them 

 of dust, but to ascertain whether they are sufficiently 

 sound and strong. 



We recently witnessed a more laborious process of 

 cleaning a web than merely shaking^it. On coming 

 down the Maine by the steam-boat from Frankfort, 

 in August 1829, we observed the geometric-net of a 

 conic-spider (Epcira conica^ Walck.) on the frame- 

 work of the deck, and as it was covered with flakes 



* Spectacle de la Nature, i. p. 61. 



