[86 



Spiber (Bo^eip/ 



Part II. 



1bow tbe Spiber maftea ber Web. 



Bv H. M. J. Underhill. 



THE dusty cobwebs of unused rooms, the geometric snare of 

 the garden spider, and perhaps the gossamer threads, 

 which one finds in the fields on autumn mornings, are all 

 the different kinds of webs usually recognised. There are many 

 more, made by other kinds of spiders, quite as common, if not so 

 conspicuous. Yet, in spite of the temptation to give a rapid 

 general survey, I think it will be more interesting to restrict 

 myself to one spider, the commonest, yet perhaps the most 

 wonderful web-maker of them all, the common garden spider 

 {Epeira diadem a). 



Any one who has watched this spider making its web will have 

 noticed that the thread comes out of some little protuberances at 

 the end of its tail. These are called " spinnerets." The word 

 is a complete misnomer, for a spider's thread is not spun at all ; 

 on the contrary, it comes out quite straight, and is never twisted. 

 But as the usage is so widely accepted, and since the idea of 

 spiders "spinning '" their webs is at least as old as Shakspere, one 

 can only protest against the incorrectness, and employ the word 

 oneself Fig. 7 is a drawing of the so-called spinnerets of Ep'eira 

 apodisa, not the common garden spider, but one very like it. The 

 uppermost part of the figure is the end of the spider's cloaca, 

 which is drawn in section in Fig. i of my former paper.f Imme- 

 diately beneath this organ is the upper pair of spinners ; between 

 them, much smaller, and darkly shaded, is the middle pair ; and 

 beneath these two pairs is the lower pair. The ends of these 

 spinners are furnished with numerous small funnels or tubes, 

 through which the silk is emitted in little threadlets. I call these 

 funnels " discharge-tubes," and they may be better understood by 

 a reference to Fig. 8. Those on the upper and middle spinners 

 * I'rom 'J7ic U'cho/iic, by special permission, 

 t '^Q.Q Journal of Microscopy, January, 1 889, p. 17. 



