45 THE*NATURAL HISTORY 



spinnerets have been counted on each of the nipples 

 of one species, so that assuming them to be all in 

 action at the same time, which, however, may not im- 

 probably be an exceptional condition, the thread of 

 this particular species must be composed of no less 

 than four thousand finer lines. It is certain that the 

 common Diadem Spider lias the faculty of emitting 

 from its spinnerets a broad ribbon of web secretion, 

 which may be distinctly seen by the unassisted eye, 

 to consist of innumerable parallel lines, individually 

 much finer than the ordinary threads of which its 

 geometric web is formed. It is not unreasonable, 

 therefore, to assume that these ordinary threads con- 

 sist of finer lines that have coalesced immediately 

 after issuing from the spinnerets, although it must be 

 admitted that the most skilful and delicate manipu- 

 lation has never hitherto surmounted the difficulty of 

 separating the filaments from each other. We have 

 more than once seen the diadem spider seize a large 

 fly, whose frantic struggles were endangering the 

 symmetry of its web, and, holding it between its fore 

 legs, rapidly turn it round and round in contact with 

 its band of threads, and thus, in a few seconds, swathe 

 it in a dense shroud of web, that effectually deprived 

 it of all power of motion. 



Spiders undergo no metamorphosis, but their changes 

 of skin are frequent, they also possess the remakable 

 faculty, in common with the Crustacea, of casting off 

 an injured limb or two and reproducing them at the 

 next ensuing moult, a provision of inestimable value 

 to a fierce animal, that when fairly dependent on its 

 own resources, seldom meets one of its own kind 

 without a desperate battle, often fatal to one or other 

 of the combatants. 



With the exception of our common House Spider 

 ( Tegenaria domestica), probably the Diadem, or Garden 

 Spider (Epeira Diadema) is the most widely known. 

 Its beautifully symmetrical, vertical net, consisting of 



