r*, ~ " ' ' 3&- 



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~-^:.- - ' ' I / 



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- ' 



On the left, suspended by its line, is the common Garden Spider, 

 diadema ; beneath it is the Labyrinthic Spider, Agelena labyrinthica, at the 

 mouth of its hollow snare ; and on the leaf adjoining is the green Long-bodied 

 Spider, Tetragnatha extensa. The rotund species to the right, and the traveller 

 by the cable bridge, are spinners of geometric webs, of which a small one with 

 its minute artificer, Theridion, is represented as often seen constructed within 

 the leaf of a nettle. The little urn-shaped body on a leaf near the centre is a 

 nest of peculiar form guarded by its ingenious weaver. 



INSECT AERONAUTS. 



'HE weather is dry, warm, and still, yet with- 

 out a gleam of sunshine, a combination of 

 winter gloom with almost summer mildness. 

 Gossamer is floating or falling slowly through 

 the air, numerous spiders are hanging, motion- 

 less, head downwards, in the centre of their geometric webs, 

 lying in wait for prey, while others, restlessly ascending blades 



