378 Insect Architecture. 



and they were falling ; but scarcely one in twenty contained 

 a spider: though, on minute inspection, I found small 

 winged insects, chiefly aphides, entangled in most of them. 



"From contemplating this unusual display of gossamer, 

 my thoughts w T ere naturally directed to the mimals which 

 produced it, and the countless myriads in which they 

 swarmed almost created as much surprise as the singular 

 occupation that engrossed them. Apparently actuated by 

 the same impulse, all were intent upon traversing the regions 

 of air : accordingly, after gaining the summits of various 

 objects, as blades of grass, stubble, rails, gates, &c., by the 

 slow and. laborious process of climbing, they raised them- 

 selves still higher by straightening their limbs ; and elevating 

 the abdomen, by bringing it from the usual horizontal 

 position into one almost perpendicular, they emitted from 

 their spinning apparatus a small quantity of the glutinous 

 secretion with which they construct their webs. This 

 viscous substance being drawn out by the ascending current 

 of rarefied air into fine lines several feet in length, was 

 carried upward, until the spiders, feeling themselves acted 

 upon with sufficient force in that direction, quitted their 

 hold of the objects on which they stood, and commenced 

 their journey by mounting aloft. 



"Whenever the lines became inadequate to the purpose 

 for which they were intended, by adhering to any fixed body, 

 they were immediately detached from the spinners, and so 

 converted into terrestrial gossamer, by means of the last pair 

 of legs, and the proceedings just described were repeated ; 

 which plainly proves that these operations result from a 

 strong desire felt by the insects to effect an. ascent."* Mr. 

 Blackwall has recently read a paper (still unpublished) in 

 the Linnean Society, confirmatory of his opinions. 



6. Without going into the particulars of what agrees or 

 disagrees in the above experiments with our own observa- 

 tions, we shall give a brief account of what we have actually 

 seen in our researches. (J. E.) So far as we have deter- 

 mined, then, all the various species of spiders, how different 

 * Linn. Trans., vol. xr. p. 453. 



