INSECT AND OTHER STRATEGISTS 103 



ning out long silken threads; weaving these threads into nets more 

 perfect than any ever made by human hand and then suspending them 

 with the best judgment where the wished-for prey is most abundant? 

 Indeed it would not be more wonderful, but in this case, as in so 

 many others, we neglect the actions of the tiny creatures, which in 

 the larger ones would excite our admiration and endless attention. 

 In fact, the minuteness of the creature renders web-building even 

 more wonderful in the eyes of those who see nature as she really is. 



The spiders might well be termed the kings of strategists, for their 

 beautiful nets of glistening silk are among the most wonderful of 

 creations. The spiders are divided into many groups, but the orb- 

 builders, the platform-builders and those individuals who build no 

 webs at all belong to the most interesting families. 



The first group 1 constructs those exquisite geometrical figures, so 

 wonderful and complicated and so common that w r e seldom stop to 

 realize their beauty. They hang their webs in window corners, door- 

 ways, between branches of trees and in many other convenient situa- 

 tions where their prey is likely to be abundant. The silken threads 

 which compose the webs of the orb-builders, are extremely sticky, 

 consequently an insect seldom gains its freedom when once entangled 

 in these death traps. 



Many of the orb-builders sit motionless in the center of their webs 

 while waiting for their prey, but the cunningest of them hide at a dis- 

 tance within a tiny bower of leaves, which are carefully shaped and 

 then basted together with soft white silk by the spider. From the 

 very center of the web, the creature spins two long delicate threads 

 which run into the opening of the bower. These it clasps in its front 

 feet and through them, the slightest motion of an entangled insect is 

 transmitted to the hiding cannibal. 



1 Epeiridae. 



