FOOD OF INSECTS. 421 



it off to her den. If the captured insect be a hee or a 

 large fly so strong that the spider is sensible it is more 

 than a match for her, she never attempts to seize or even 

 entangle it, but on the contrary assists it to disengage 

 itself, and often breaks off that part of the net to which 

 it hangs, content to be rid of such an unmanageable in- 

 truder at any price. — When larger booty is plentiful, 

 these spiders seem not to regard smaller insects. I 

 have observed them in autumn, when their nets were 

 almost covered with the Aphides which filled the air, 

 impatiently pulling them off and dropping them un- 

 touched over the sides, as though irritated that their 

 meshes should be occupied with such insignificant game. 

 — A species of spider described by Lister, (A. conica^') 

 more provident than its brethren, suspends its prey in 

 the meshes above and below the centre, and it is not 

 uncommon to see its larder thus stored with several 

 flies ^. 



You must not infer that the toils of spiders are in 

 every part of the world formed of such fragile materials 

 as those which we are accustomed to see, or that they 

 are every where contented with small insects for their 

 food. An author in the Pliilosophical Transactions as- 

 serts, that the spiders of Bermudas spin webs between 

 trees seven and eight fathoms distant, which are strong- 

 enough to ensnare a bird as large as a thrush''. And Sir 

 G. Staunton informs us, that in the forests of Java, 

 spiders' webs are met with of so strong a texture as to 

 require a sharp cutting instrument to make way through 

 them*. 



" Lister, Hist. Jnim. yfng. 32, tit. 4. * Phil. Tr. 1663, p. 792. 



"^ Embassy to China, i. 343. 



