282 ARACHNID ES. 



floating about in sjjring and autumn in foggy weather, vulgarly 

 termed in France fds de la Vierge, are certainly produced — as Ave 

 have satisfactorily ascertained by tracing them to their point of origin 

 — by various young Araneides, those of the Epeirse and Thomisi 

 particularly ; they are mostly the larger threads which are intended 

 to afford points of attachment to the radii of the web, or those that 

 compose the chain, and which, becoming more ponderous by the 

 access of moisture, sink, approach one another, and finally form little 

 pellets : we frequently observe them collected near the web com- 

 menced by the Spider, and in which it resides. 



It is also very probable that many of these young animals not 

 having as yet a sufficient supply of silk, limit their structure to 

 throwing out simple threads. It is, I think, to the young LycoscC 

 that we must attribute those which intersect the furrows of ploughed 

 grounds, whose numbers are rendered so apparent by the reflection 

 of light after sunrise. By chemical analysis, these Jils de la Vierge 

 exhibit the same characters as the web of the spider — they are not 

 then formed in the atmosphere, as, for want of proper observation, 

 ex visu, that celebrated naturalist, M. Lamarck, has conjectured. 

 Gloves and stockings have been made with this silk ; but it was 

 found impossible to apply the process on a large scale, and, as it is 

 subject to many difficulties, is rather a matter of curiosity than 

 utility. This substance, however, is of much greater importance to 

 the little animals in question. With it, the sedentary species, or those 

 which do not roam abroad in search of their prey, weave webs * of 

 a more or less compact tissue, whose form and position vary accord- 

 ing to the peculiar habits of each of them, and that are so many snares 

 or traps, where the insects on which they feed become entangled, or 

 are taken. No sooner is one of them ari'ested there by the hooks of 

 its tarsi, than the Spider, sometimes placed in the centre of his net, 

 or at the bottom of his web, or at others lying in ambush in a peculiar 

 domicile situated near and in one of the angles, rushes towards his 

 victim, and endeavours to pierce him with his murderous dart, dis- 

 tilling into the wound a prompt and mortal poison ; should the former 

 resist too vigorously, or should it be dangerous to the latter to 

 approach it, he retreats, waiting until it has either exhausted its 

 powers by struggling, or become more entangled in the net; but 

 should there be no cause of fear, he hastens to bind it by involving 

 the body in his silken threads, with which it is sometimes completely 

 enveloped. 



* Those of some exotic species are so strong, that small birds are entangled in 

 them ; they even oppose a certain degree of resistance to man. 



