Building the IVeb i\2i 



ruined auxiliary thread. One would take them 

 for grains of dust, if the faultless regularity of 

 their distribution did not remind us of the 

 vanished spiral. They continue, still visible, 

 until the final collapse of the net. 



And the Spider, without a stop of any kind, 

 turns and turns and turns, drawing nearer to 

 the centre and repeating the operation of fixing 

 her thread at each spoke which she crosses. A 

 good half-hour, an hour even among the full- 

 grown Spiders, is spent on spiral circles, to the 

 number of about fifty for the web of the Silky 

 Epeira and thirty for those of the Banded and 

 the Angular Epeira. 



At last, at some distance from the centre, on 

 the borders of what I have called the resting- 

 floor, the Spider abruptly terminates her spiral 

 when the space would still allow of a certain 

 number of turns. We shall see the reason of 

 this sudden stop presently. Next, the Epeira, 

 no matter which, young or old, hurriedly flings 

 herself upon the little central cushion, pulls it 

 out and rolls it into a ball which I expected to 

 see thrown away. But no : her thrifty nature 

 does not permit this waste. She eats the 



