The Garden Spiders: My Neighbour 



need for increased solidity when the work has 

 to be done again on the morrow. 



On the other hand, in the late autumn, the 

 full-grown Spiders, feeling laying-time at 

 hand, are driven to practise economy, in view 

 of the great expenditure of silk required for 

 the egg-bag. Owing to its large size, the net 

 now becomes a costly work which it were well 

 to use as long as possible, for fear of finding 

 one's reserves exhausted when the time comes 

 for the expensive construction of the nest. 

 For this reason, or for others which escape 

 me, the Banded and the Silky Epeirae think it 

 wise to produce durable work and to 

 strengthen their toils with a cross-ribbon. 

 The other Epeirse, who are put to less ex- 

 pense in the fabrication of their maternal 

 wallet a mere pill are unacquainted with 

 the zigzag binder and, like the younger 

 Spiders, reconstruct their web almost nightly. 



My fat neighbour, the Angular Epeira, 

 consulted by the light of a lantern, shall tell 

 us how the renewal of the net proceeds. As 

 the twilight fades, she comes down cautiously 

 from her day-dwelling; she leaves the foliage 

 of the cypresses for the suspension-cable of 

 her snare. Here she stands for some time; 

 359 



