The Life of the Spider 



animals. Can dissmymetry, that source of 

 contrasts, be a general rule? Or are there 

 neutrals, endowed with equal powers of skill 

 and energy on both sides? Yes, there are; 

 and the Spider is one of them. She enjoys 

 the very enviable privilege of possessing a left 

 side which is no less capable than the right. 

 She is ambidextrous, as witness the following 

 observations. 



When laying her snaring-thread, every 

 Epeira turns in either direction indifferently, 

 as a close watch will prove. Reasons whose 

 secret escapes us determine the direction 

 adopted. Once this or the other course is 

 taken, the spinstress does not change it, even 

 after incidents that sometimes occur to disturb 

 the progress of the work. It may happen 

 that a Gnat gets caught in the part already 

 woven. The Spider thereupon abruptly in- 

 terrupts her labours, hastens up to the prey, 

 binds it and then returns to where she stopped 

 and continues the spiral in the same order as 

 before. 



At the commencement of the work, gyra- 

 tion in one direction being employed as well 

 as gyration in the other, we see that, when 

 making her repeated webs, the same Epeira 

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