FOOD OF INSECTSi 417 



along which the spider crept. As this was connected 

 with the spinners of the spider, it could not have been 

 formed in the same way with the secondary thread of 

 A. diadema above described. 



Probably in this case, as in so many others, we be- 

 wilder ourselves by attempting to make nature bend to 

 generalities to v/hich she disdains to submit. Different 

 spiders may lay the foundations of their net in a dif- 

 ferent manner; some on the plan adopted by A. dia- 

 dema ; others, as Lister long ago conjectured % by shoot- 

 ing 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 in- 

 stituted. 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 En- 

 tomologists of ours, that they should yet L^ ignorant 

 bow the geometric spiders fix their nets. One excuse 

 for them is, that these insects generally begin their ope- 

 rations 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 



* Hhl. Anim. Ang. p. 7. " Plin. Hist, Sat. 1. r.i. c. IT. 



VOL. I. 2 E 



