312 



INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



for as the web is always liorizontal, it would seldom answer 

 to commit a floating thread to the Avind, as is done by 

 other species. Homberg's spider, after stretching as many 

 lines by way of icarp as it deemed sufficient between the 

 two walls of the coi-ner which it had chosen, proceeded to 

 cross this in the way our weavers do in adding the icoof^ 

 with this difference, that the spider's threads were only 

 laid on, and not interlaced.* The domestic spiders, 

 however, in these modern days,- must have forgot this mode 

 of weaving, for none of their webs will be found to be thus 

 regularly constructed ! 



The geometric, or net-working spiders (7e72c?ei/sgs, Late.), 

 are as well known in most districts as any of the preceding ; 



Geometric Met of Epeira diadema. 



almost every bush and tree in the gardens and hedge-rows 

 havino; one or more of their nets stretched out in a vertical 



Mem. de I'Acad, des Sciences pom- 1707, p. 330. 



