AERONAUTIC SPIDERS 



long threads, which, as they are taken in, she rolls up 

 into a flossy white ball above her jaws. 



As the floatage shortens, the aerial vessel loses its 

 buoyancy, and at last the spider sinks by her own 

 weight to the field. Thereupon she throws out a silken 

 rope, after the manner of aeronauts, which anchors to 

 the foliage, and the young voyager abandons her " bas- 

 ket" and begins life in her new-found site. This volun- 

 tary descent seems to be a rather exceptional experience. 

 For the most part the balloon is stopped by striking 

 against some elevated object. 



The above description covers the average manner of 

 the araneal aeronaut. There are variations, of course, 

 one of wliich may be noted. Some orbweavers, instead 

 of vaulting into the air from a perch, spin against a 

 filament streaming from some elevated object a tiny 

 cone-shaped puff or pellet of silken floss, underneath 

 wliich they hang until it is twisted off by the wind or 

 cut loose by their sharp jaws. Tliis, with streamers 

 floating fore and aft, forms the little creature's balloon. 

 On a soft October day one may see many such swinging 

 and drifting away from shocks of corn, from clumps of 

 thistles and golden-rod, and from russet patches of 

 blackberry-vines. 



Given a steady breeze and a free course, there is 

 practically no limit to the distance which a ballooning 

 spider may traverse. The author has taken orbweavers 

 from their snuggeries under divers sheltering projections 

 at the highest attainable point on the dome of St. 

 Peter's in Rome, whither they had doubtless been car- 

 ried by the wind when younglings. One may see flecks 

 of gossamer afloat at far greater heights. Seafaring 

 folk often note spider balloons speeding by them at sea 



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