THE HOUSE SPIDER 181 



female rushes at once to it, and turning rapidly about literally 

 throws tdiie sticky silk against the victim with her hind legs, (fig- 

 ure 32.) Strands of silk pulled from the spinnerets by the tips 

 of these legs are wrapped about the body of the fly several times. 

 If the struggling victim so tears the web as to threaten escape 

 the female ties it fast with the new strands of silk which after 

 being wound about the body of the fly are fastened to the web. 

 When securely "wrapped" the victim is calmly approached by 

 the female and bitten, apparently at the most available spot. 

 This may suffice to bring about a speedy death. If not, the 

 female repeats her dose of venom several times, until eventually 

 the prey succumbs. After the victim is killed the female snips 

 all the strands of silk adhering to it, and carries her prey to the 

 top of the web. Here she feeds on it at her leisure. 



This is the normal way of snaring the prey. It is the same 

 method as is employed by the males and also Ly the spiderlings. 

 Occasionally a spider will drop from her web on her line of silk. 

 and throw a few sticky loops about a victim and draw it into 

 her web, where it is killed. This is not very commonly done, 

 however, and in no case do either male, or female or spiderlings 

 leave the web to search for prey as is done by some of the other 

 species of spiders. 



The prey of the house spider consists of a great variety of 

 invertebrates and according to some accounts even vertebrates 

 are not exempt from attack. Dipterous insects are the most 

 common, and of these the house fly is pre-eminently the species 

 most preyed upon. Carefully kept records of many snares show 

 this species to 6e by far the most common one caught. The 

 spiders do not seem to be averse to any of the common arthro- 

 pods. Phalangids and other species of spiders constitute a con- 

 siderable item of their diet. 



McOook in one of his interesting volumes on "American 

 Spiders and their Spinning "Work" relates the capture of a 

 mouse by a spider which was observed by several persons in the 

 state of Kentucky. The mouse when first observed had a strong 

 line of silk spun around its tail which was carried up to the 

 spider's web on the underside of a table. This line was strength- 

 ened by many strands of silk, and the spider kept shortening it 

 continually until finally the mouse swung free from the floor. 

 In this position it was finally killed after many hours. McCook 



