238 FOOD OF INSECTS. 



in the centre with their head downwards, and retire to a little apartment 

 formed on one side under some leaf of a plant, only when obliged by 

 danger or the state of the weather, or as before stated, constantly hide 

 themselves in a similar retreat. The moment an unfortunate fly or other 

 insect touches the net, the spider rushes towards it, seizes it with her 

 fangs, and if it be a small species at once carries it to her little cell, and, 

 having there at leisure sucked its juices, throws out the carcass. If the 

 insect be larger, and struggle to escape, with surprising address she en- 

 velopes it with threads in various directions, until both its wings and legs 

 being effectually .fastened, she carries it off to her den. If the captured 

 insect be a bee or a large fly so strong that the spider is sensible that it is 

 more than a match for her, she never attempts to seize or even entangle 

 it, but on the contrary assists it to disengage itself, and often breaks off 

 that part of the net to which it hangs, content to be rid of such an un- 

 manageable intruder at any price. When larger booty is plentiful, these 

 spiders seem not to regard smaller insects. I have observed them in 

 autumn, when their nets were almost covered with the Aphides which 

 filled the air, impatiently pulling them off and dropping them untouched 

 over the sides, as though irritated that their meshes should be occupied 

 with such insignificant game. A species of spider described by Lister 

 (JRpeira conica), more provident than its brethren, suspends its prey in the 

 meshes above and below the centre, and it is not uncommon to see its 

 larder thus stored with several flies. 1 



You must not infer that the toils of spiders are in every part of the 

 world formed of such fragile materials as those which we are accustomed 

 to see, or that they are everywhere contented with small insects for their 

 food. An author in the Philosophical Transactions asserts, that the spiders 

 of Bermudas spin webs between trees seven and eight fathoms distant, 

 which are strong enough to ensnare a bird as large as a thrush. 2 And 

 Sir G. Staunton informs us, that in the forests of Java, spiders' webs are 

 met with of so strong a texture as to require a sharp cutting instrument 

 to make way through them. 3 The nets of a large geometric spider, Nephila 

 (Epe'ird) clavipes, are sufficiently strong to arrest and entangle the smaller 

 species of humming-birds ; but Mr. W. S. MacLeay, in whose garden at 

 Cuba these nets abounded, never saw or heard of any birds being caught 

 in them. 4 On the other hand, however, he observed in the grounds of 

 Elizabeth Bay, near Sydney (Australia), in the beginning of 1840, a 

 young bird (Zosterops dorsalis), which had been apparently dead some 

 days, suspended in the geometrical net of an enormous undescribed spider 

 of the same family (Epeiridae), which was in the act of sucking its juices; 

 and his father, Alexander MacLeay, Esq., informed him that he had also 

 been witness to a similar occurrence ; but he considers these facts as ex- 

 ceptions to the general rule of this spider's insectivorous habits and to be 

 of rare occurrence, since, as far as he could learn, no other persons had 

 observed them. 5 



Nor must you suppose that all the spiders of this country which catch 

 their prey by means of snares follow the same plan in constructing them 

 as the weavers and geometricians whose operations I have endeavoured to 

 describe. The form of their snares and the situation in which they place 



1 Lister, Hist. Anirn. Aug. 32, tit. 4. 2 phu Tr. 1668, p. 792. 



3 Embassy to China, i. 343. 



4 Trans. Zool Soc. Lond. i. 193. 5 ^ nn , tf at . Hist. viii. 324. 



