GOSSAMER 



293 



strength and freedom from twist. In order to obtain the 

 thread, the spider is carefully fixed on a miniature " rack," 

 and the thread, which at the moment of issue from the 

 body is a viscid liquid, is made to adhere to a winder, 

 by turning which the desired length of firm but elastic 

 thread can be procured. It has been proposed to use 

 spiders' silk in manufactures as a substitute for silk-worms' 

 silk, and pioneers have woven gloves, stockings, and other 

 articles from it. It appears that there are species of 

 spider in other parts of the world 

 whose thread is coarser and more 

 suitable for this purpose than that 

 of any of our British spiders. But 

 it is estimated that the expense 

 in feeding the spiders which re- 

 quire insect food would make 

 the thread obtained from them far 

 too costly to compete with silk- 

 worm silk. 



A number of different kinds 

 of the lower animals besides spiders 

 have the power of producing 

 threads. The caterpillars of some 

 moths are especially noted for 

 this, since their thread is familiar 



to us all as "silk." It is secreted as a viscid fluid by 

 a pair of tubes opening at the mouth, and hardens on 

 escape. Even some marine creatures the mussels 

 produce threads, in this case from a gland or sac in the 

 muscular foot, by means of which they fix themselves 

 to rocks. A very big mussel the Pinna called Capo 

 lungo by the Mediterranean fishermen and Capy longy at 

 Plymouth, where they are also found, produces a sufficient 

 quantity of fine horny threads to be used in weaving, and 

 gloves have been made at Genoa from the shell-fish silk. 



FIG. 51. The common 

 garden spider, more cor- 

 rectly called the white- 

 cross spider (Epetra 

 diadema) : a female drawn 

 a little (one-fifth) larger 

 than life. 



