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LETTER XIII. 



FOOD OF INSECTS continued. 



STRATAGEMS EMPLOYED IN PROCURING IT. 



THE stratagems of insects in obtaining their food are now to engage our at- 

 tention. I shall not dwell on those inartificial modes of surprising their 

 prey, of which examples may be found amongst almost every order of 

 insects, such as watching behind a leaf or other object affording conceal- 

 ment until its approach, but shall proceed to describe the various artifices 

 of the race of spiders, of which there are several hundred distinct specie^, 

 differing essentially from each other both in characters and manners. 



Many of these are constantly under our eyes ; and were it not that we 

 are accustomed to neglect what is the subject of daily occurrence, we 

 should never behold a spider's web without astonishment. What, if we 

 had not witnessed it, would seem more incredible than that any animal 

 should spin threads ; weave these threads into nets more admirable than 

 ever fowler or fisherman fabricated; suspend them with the nicest judg- 

 ment in the place most abounding in the wished-for prey, and there, con- 

 cealed, watcli patiently its approach ? In this case, as in so many others, 

 we neglect actions in minute animals, which in the larger would excite our 

 endless admiration. How would the world erowd to see a fox which 

 should spin ropes, weave them into an accurately meshed net, and extend 

 this net between two trees for the purpose of entangling a flight of birds ! 

 Or should we think we had ever expressed sufficient wonder at seeing a 

 fish which obtained its prey by a similar contrivance ? Yet there would, 

 in reality, be nothing more marvellous in their procedures than in those of 

 spiders, which, indeed, the minuteness of the agent renders more won- 

 derful. 



All spiders do not spin webs. A considerable number adopt other 

 means for catching insects. Of these I shall speak hereafter. At present 

 1 shall endeavour to give you a clear idea of the operations of the weavers, 

 explaining successively the instruments by which they spin, the mode of 

 forming their nets, together with the various descriptions of them, and the 

 manner in which they entrap and secure their prey. 



The thread spun by spiders is in substance similar to the silk of the silk- 

 worm and other caterpillars, but of a much finer quality. As in them, it 

 proceeds from reservoirs, into which it is secreted in the form of a viscid 

 gum ; but in the mode of its extrication is very dissimilar, issuing not from 

 the mouth, but the hinder part of the abdomen. If you examine a spider, 

 you will perceive in this part four or six little teat-like protuberances or 

 spinners. These are the machinery through which, by a process more 

 singular than that of rope-spinning, the thread is drawn. Each spinner 



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