NOTES ON MRS. MOFFATT'S TALK ON SPIDERS 51 



due to Professor Drushel's activities; his influence has been ever 

 widening Hke the waves started in the educational waters always 

 by the projecting into them a strong and virile personality. Pro- 

 fessor Drushel has always stood for the real thing in Nature-Study, 

 for he is an out-of-doors man as well as a laboratory instructor and 

 his influence has been exerted to get the teachers into the fields and 

 to see for themselves what is there. In addition to his strong 

 qualities as a teacher he has a whimsical sense of humor that is 

 most delightful and which enables him to deal with difficult situa- 

 tions tactfully and successfully. The Nature-Study Society of 

 America is fortunate indeed to have secured Professor Drushel for 

 its president. 



Notes on Mrs. Moffatt's Talk on Twenty-Five Common 



Spiders 



Mrs. Moffatt gave briefly the habits of twenty-five species of 

 spiders common in the vicinity of Chicago, showing sixty slides 

 illustrating the spiders, their webs and cocoons. 



She explained that the webs of many species belonging to the 

 orb-builders are made in sunny situations, on tall weeds and on the 

 borders of woodlands where insects are in abundance. Others that 

 make no webs in which to ensnare their prey, but depend on their 

 alertness and keenness of sight, are found on the ground, in low 

 grass or upon the bark of trees. Nimierous insects, such as grass- 

 hoppers, mosquitoes, crickets, aphids, katydids, flies, gnats and 

 many kinds of beetles live in and among the weeds, sedges, grasses 

 or on the trees. As far as we know, living insects are the spiders' 

 only food. They choose to live where these insects are abundant. 

 The young, when hatched, will in all probability receive the same 

 kind of food that nourished the mother, so she carefully and 

 securely places her cocoon where these insects abound. 



As the species eaten by spiders consist so largely of kinds that 

 we consider injurious, Mrs. Moffatt claims that we must look upon 

 the spiders as beneficial; that some writers have asserted that in 

 the destruction of noxious insects they are more effective than 

 birds ; that whether this is true or not, we do know the benefit they 

 are to us in keeping in check many undesirable insect pests, and for 

 that reason we ought to do all that we can to protect them. 



