420 FOOD OF INSECTS. 



prey in the meshes above and below the centre, and it 

 is not uncommon to see its larder thus stored with se- 

 veral flies a . 



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 Philosophical Transactions asserts, that the 

 spiders of Bermudas spin webs between trees seven and 

 eight fathoms distant, which are strong enough to en- 

 snare a bird as large as a thrush 5 . And Sir G. Staun- 

 ton 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 c . 



Nor must you suppose that all the spiders of this coun- 

 try which catch their prey by means of snares, follow 

 the same plan in constructing them as the weavers and 

 geometricians whose operations I have endeavoured to 

 describe. The form of their snares and the situation in 

 which they place them are so various, that it is impossi- 

 ble to enumerate more than a few of the most remark- 

 able. Agelene labyrinthica extends over the blades of 

 grass a large white horizontal net having at its margin a 

 cylindrical cell, in the bottom of which, secure from birds 

 and defended from the rays of the sun, the spider lies 

 concealed, whence on the slightest movement of her net 

 she rushes out upon her prey. Aranea latens, F. conceals 

 itself under a small net spun upon the upper surface of 

 a leaf, and thence seizes upon any insect that chances to 

 pass over it. Theridium \3-guttatum forms under stones 



* Lister, Hist. Anim. Aug. 32, tit. 4. b Phil. Tr. 1668, p. 792. 

 c Embassy to China, i. 343. 



