The Wonderful Ways of Insects and Spiders [ 283 



SPIDER MOTHERS ARE RESOURCEFUL 



Spiders have still another use for their silk. Eggs laid in 

 the autumn to hatch in the spring need protection from weather 

 as well as from hungry creatures. Many spiders solve this problem 

 by spinning elaborate silken sacs for their eggs. Those that make 

 cobwebs often suspend the sac from the web or they may place 

 the sac in a more sheltered spot. Others make nests for their eggs 

 in folded leaves, or in the crevices of rocks and boards. Another 

 custom is to nest on stones and cover the nest and eggs with a 

 smooth, waterproof silken coat. 



You may frequently see these little silvery disks as you walk 

 through the fields in autumn. The large running spiders that you 

 are most likely to find under stones not only make egg sacs the 

 mother attaches the sac to her spinnerets and carries it everywhere. 

 When the young hatch, they climb on her back and stay with her 

 for some time. 



Cannibal Spiders: Even a mother's care cannot prevent her oft 

 spring from devouring each other. One of the common orb 

 weavers, the orange garden spider, makes a very fine sac, about 

 as large as a hickory nut, in which she may lay five hundred eggs 

 or more. These hatch early in the winter but the young remain 

 within the protective walls of the sac. By spring, when the sac 

 breaks open, only a dozen or so young may emerge. They are 

 the strong ones that have survived by consuming the rest of the 

 once-large family. 



"FLYING" SPIDERS 



Possibly you have had the disconcerting experience of hav- 

 ing a very tiny spider "fly" in your face on occasion. Particularly 

 in the spring and autumn great numbers of these eight-legged 

 creatures sail through the air and, especially to a youngster, it 

 may seem they are actually flying. 



However, if you look closely, you will see that the spiderling 

 is attached to a long thread still one more use for silk! Aided by 

 the thread, it makes use of rising air currents to float from its 

 hatching place to new territory, well apart from its numerous 

 and hungry brothers and sisters. 



