304 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



wonderful animal-machine, with its system of reservoirs, 

 spinning apparatus, and carding claws, is far more complex 

 and admirable than the Lancashire self-acting " mules," which 

 spin at one time a thousand threads of "twist," each resem- 

 bling a cable when compared 

 with the spun tissue of the 

 spider. 



Some spiders never use 

 their webs for nets. Thus 

 the small gossamer spider 

 turns her fine threads into a 

 convenient bridge for pass- 

 ing from one plant to ano- 

 ther, or uses them as a fairy- 

 like chariot to bear her aloft 

 in the air. Sometimes a 

 whole army of these minuto 

 creatures descends upon the 

 fields, and even rivers, as in 

 1811, when the Tagus was 

 covered for half a mile with 

 the webs of the gossamers, 

 which floated safely on their 

 silvery rafts. These floating 

 webs and spiders have settled 

 on ships sixty miles from 

 land, as when the rigging of 

 the Beagle discovery vessel 

 was covered with a cloud of 

 gossamers in the estuary of 

 the Eio de la Plata. 



The building spider uses 



the soft webs for lining the cell which it has formed in the 

 earth, and also for securing the movable trap-door at the en- 

 trance. This door is usually made of about fifteen layers of 

 web, alternating with as many of fine earth. All these walls of 

 web are curiously united to form a self-closing door-hinge. 

 The water or diving spider (Argyroneta aquatica*) con- 

 structs a bell-shaped house, to 

 which it retires with its cap- 

 tured prey. The residence is 

 made waterproof by a gummy 

 covering, air being carried down 

 to the house by a bag formed 

 of the same gummy substance 

 fastened under the animal's 

 body, where it sparkles, when 

 filled with air, like a crystal 

 globule. Thia clever spider 

 fastens its home to water-plants by strong web-lines, which act 

 as cables. 



The diving spider is often found in Cambridgeshire and the 

 adjoining counties, and appears to pass the winter in its 

 aquatic house, which it completely fills with air as the cold 

 season approaches. If by any accident the nest should then be 

 tilted on one side so that the air escapes and water enters, the 

 half-torpid inhabitant perishes. This spider 

 is of a dark-brown colour, the legs armed 

 with spines, and the body silky to the touch. 

 The males of this species are larger than the 

 females ; but the contrary is the general law 

 of the spider family. The red and white hairy 

 brook spider of Cambridgeshire (Dolomedes 

 fimbriatus) must not be confounded with tho 

 above-mentioned diver, though it runs readily 

 over the surface of water. Some of the tube 

 making spiders will even dive under the water, 

 but their cells are never aquatic. 



The webs of the common house spider can- 

 not be called beautiful ; but the mode in which 

 one layer of tissue is interwoven with another, 

 and tho whole kept extended and in shape by 

 the long supporting threads, will repay obser- 

 vation. The construction and arrangement of the cell to which 

 these spiders carry their prey, and where they watch in constant 

 readiness to dart forth, will furnish additional topics of interest. 



* Arg'jroneta signifies a spinner of silver thread. 



None of our English webs approach in size some of the 

 foreign kinds. The main lines of the Bermuda spider's web are 

 sometimes suspended between trees sixteen yards apart, and 

 " will snare a bird as big as a thrush." These long threads 



being emitted from the spi- 



GEOMETRICAL SPIDERS WEB. 



FOOT OP SPIDER (MAGNIFIED). 



THE WATER SPIDER 



der's body, are carried by the 

 wind to distant trees, or 

 across rivers, and when one 

 adheres to some substance 

 the animal speedily crosses 

 on the slender bridge, and 

 effectually fastens its first 

 line of suspension. If a web- 

 spinning spider be placed on 

 a twig surrounded by water, 

 it will generally contrive to 

 escape by sending out its- 

 threads, and so forming a 

 bridge. 



Some spiders are called 

 webless, but the females of 

 these do, nevertheless, spin 

 a substance for the cocoons, 

 in which their eggs are pre- 

 served. Some of these also- 

 often spin a beautiful silky 

 substance, with which they 

 luxuriously line their cells, 

 formed in old walls or in the 

 earth. Most spiders have 

 very clear notions of making 

 themselves comfortable at 



home. Spiders, though clever, are not considered capable of much 

 tender emotion. The females will sometimes even kill and eat 

 the males, but often show a high degree of affection for their 

 young. Some carry tho cocoons, containing the eggs, about 

 with them on all their journeys ; others select a sheltered placa 

 on which the cradle can be safely slung during the winter. 

 The careful manner in which the " egg- 

 cup " is covered over to protect the 

 contents from the cold, is itself a wit- 

 ness to the spider's motherly fore- 

 thought. These cocoons may often 

 be seen on the inner walls of sheds and 

 out-houses. A few spiders really wait 

 upon and feed their young. The wolf- 

 spider, fierce as her name sounds, will 

 fight to the death with the ant-lion in 

 defence of her egg-cocoon. 



In one peculiar respect spiders resem- 

 ble crabs, being compelled repeatedly to 

 change their coats. The first of these 

 moults must be undergone by the young spider before it can 

 even move. The creature is at first bound up like a mummy in 

 a tight covering, confining all the limbs. Some house-spiders 

 obtain nine changes of raiment in a life-time. It is at these 

 seasons that the spider has its only chance of 

 recovering the lost limbs which it often parts 

 with so easily. The loss of a leg is not a tri- 

 vial matter, as the want of tho combing-claw 

 may prevent the proper spinning of the web- 

 threads. Sir Joseph Banks caught a spider 

 having but three legs ; he kept it for exami- 

 nation, and in about a month saw the old skin 

 cast off, when the rudiments of five new legs 

 appeared, which ; .n three days grew to half the 

 size of the old ones. In twenty-nine days after 

 there was a second casting off the skin, when 

 the five legs became still larger. It seems, 

 therefore, that lost limbs are not completely 

 restored at one moulting. The feet of most 

 spiders exhibit a complex apparatus, fitted 

 for walking on glass, running over water, along 

 a ceiling, or moving over the fine web lines. The animal may 

 indeed be said to take "hold with her hands." These feet 

 should be carefully examined through a microscope to detect the 

 fine brush and hooked arrangement by which, according to Mr. 

 Blackwall, the spider clings to the smoothest surfaces. 



SPINNERET OP SPIDER 

 (MAGNIFIED). 



