274 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



vessel covered in the same way with innumerable webs of spiders, while 

 sailing during the month of March along the eastern coast of South 

 America. His ship was more than two hundred miles from land and 

 about four hundred miles south of the equator. The wind at the time, ac- 

 cording to his recollection, was blowing from the westward ; that is, from 

 the continent. Captain Dodge, at my request, communicated the facts 

 in writing, the incident having been impressed upon his memory by the 

 strangeness of seeing such creatures so far out at sea. "The spiders 

 seemed like little elongated balls, with a sort of umbrella canopy above 

 them. They settled upon the sails and rigging, and, finally, disappeared 

 as they came." l 



The purpose of such a remarkable habit as these facts exhibit is, 

 doubtless, to secure the distribution of species throughout wide 

 regions. The buoyant filaments of spider gossamer serve the 

 tiny arachnid the same good office that is rendered the dandelion 

 and thistle seed by the starry rays of down surrounding them. 



Distribu- 

 tion. 



VIII. 



The ballooning habit of spiders gives a complete explanation of a nat- 

 ural phenomenon which has attracted the attention of men from an early 



period, and which has been variously 

 alluded to in prose and poetical writ- 

 ings, viz., Showers of Gossamer. 



One who walks the open fields in 

 the latter part of September or in the 

 soft bright days of October, which 

 is the most delightful period of our 

 American year, will notice great quan- 

 tities of spider silk trailing and float- 

 ing from the stalks of weeds and grasses, and indeed from all elevated 

 objects. In the early morning, when the dew deposited upon these fila- 

 ments betrays their presence, one will be surprised at the vast 

 amount visible. Further on in the day he will observe quantities 

 of this threaded spinningwork sailing through the air. (Fig. 280.) 

 A great excess of these floating tufts and filaments constitutes what is com- 

 monly known as a gossamer shower. Doubtless Pliny alluded to such a 

 phenomenon in the statement which he makes 2 that " in the year that 

 L. Paulus and C. Marcellus were consuls it rained wool about the castle 

 Carissa, near to which, a year after, T. Annius Milo was slain." 



Fie;. 280. A fiocculent thread of gossamer, with 

 small flies entangled. 



Gossamer 

 Showers. 



1 Captain Dodge adds, very significantly : " You know that it is not unusual for birds to 

 be blown out to sea. How much easier for a spider, provided he had the means to keep 

 himself suspended in the air!" 



2 Natural History, II., 54. Holland's translation, page '21. 



