FOOD OF INSECTS. 407 



They relate that the reason why Saul did not discover 

 David and his men in the cave of Adullam* was, that 

 God had sent a spider which had quickly woven a web 

 across the entrance of the cave in which they were con- 

 cealed; which being observed by Saul, he thought it 

 useless to investigate further a spot bearing such evident 

 proofs of the absence of any human being 5 . 



The most incurious observer must have remarked the 

 great difference which exists in the construction of spi- 

 ders' webs. Those which we most commonly see in 

 houses are of a woven texture similar to fine gauze, and 

 are appropriately termed webs; while those most fre- 

 quently met with in the fields are composed of a series of 

 concentric circles united by radii diverging from the 

 centre, the threads being remote from each other. These 

 last, which in their simple state, or still more when 

 studded with dew drops, you must have a thousand 

 times admired, are with greater propriety termed nets ; 

 and the insects which form them proceeding on geome- 

 trical principles may be called geometricians, while the 

 former can aspire only to the humbler denomination of 

 weavers. I shall endeavour to describe the process fol- 

 lowed in the construction of both, beginning with the 

 latter. 



The weaving spider which is found in houses, having 

 selected some corner for the site of her web, and deter- 

 mined its extent, presses her spinners against one of 

 the walls, and thus glues to it one end of her thread. 

 She then walks along the wall to the opposite side, and 

 there in like manner fastens the other end. This thread, 

 which is to form the outer margin or selvage of her web, 



a 1 Sam. xxiv. 4. b Lesser, L. ii. 291. 



