ANGLING FOR SPIDERS. 209 



weather for at least ten or twelve days afterwards." 

 Kirby admits that his observations are in the main 

 accurate, and adds : I have reason to suppose that a 

 very good idea of the weather may be formed from 

 attending to these insects." 



We believe that we were the first, some five-and- 

 twenty years ago, to publish the singular circumstance 

 that, excepting the chief lines, the webs of spiders are 

 sometimes taken down with as much care as they are 

 constructed, and that this is always before rain. Pro- 

 fessor Eennie writes : " We have tried numerous ex- 

 periments by moving and vibrating the lines of many 

 species, so as to imitate, as nearly as possible, the en- 

 trapment of a fly ; but in no case have we succeeded in 

 bringing the spider to the spot, because, as we inferred, 

 her eyes always detected our attempted deception." 

 We once were so clever as to cheat a spider. Gently 

 shaking a very small hook, called the midge-fly, in the 

 lowest line of her web, our barometrical friend whose 

 pre-sensation gave warning of wet was fairly taken in. 

 Bushing on the hook and grasping it, great was her 

 astonishment. Finding that she should not believe her 

 eyes, she precipitately fled ; and no subsequent tempta- 

 tion, though renewed weeks afterwards, enabled us again 

 to boast that we excelled Professor Kennie in angling for 

 spiders. 



Though naturalists differ as to the degree in which 

 insects give premonition of atmospheric changes, enough 

 is known to make it very desirable that their relations 

 to meteorology should be systematically studied. In- 

 sects are undeniably very susceptible of varying tem- 

 perature. Kirby and Spence tell us that this suscepti- 

 bility is probably due to electricity perceived by the 

 antennae. Kennie is rather disposed to refer it to elec- 

 tricity acting on the hairs with which most insects are 

 beset, and adverts to the fact that bees, which are such 

 electrometers, are among the most hairy of all insects. 

 This surmise is probably well founded, and suggests 



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