WEBS OF SPIDERS. 53 



which make Gossamer, let us descend to a few of the humbler 

 fabrics woven by the same and various other species, to serve 

 as habitations or as snares. 



Who is not familiar (too familiar for appreciation of their 

 excellent workmanship) with the radiate wheel-like nets so 

 common in gardens and on hedges throughout the summer, 

 and on dewy autumn mornings rendered so brightly conspi- 

 cuous by the liquid pearls which they serve to string? In 

 addition to these borrowed gems, the spiral lines of geometric 

 webs have been shown by the microscope to be beset by a 

 number of viscid globules. The ingenious weavers of these 

 " wheels within wheels," are various species of that tribe of 

 Spiders called, from their lines and circles, the Geometric; 

 those of them most commonly known are " the Garden " 

 (Epeira diadema) and " the Long-bodied " (Tetragnatha 

 extensa), noticed already among the aeronauts. 



Among the out-door fabrics woven by Spiders, which can 

 hardly fail to attract the eye, however little they may fix atten- 

 tion, are those large white broad-sheets, sloping downwards into 

 tunnels, of which numbers are so frequently seen spread out 

 upon the grass and lower bushes. These webs, of which each 

 serves a single occupant both as a residence and a snare, are 

 attached by silken ropes to adjacent objects. The sides of the 

 horizontal broad-sheet, sloping obliquely downwards till nearly 

 perpendicular, form towards its centre a cylindrical tunnel, and 

 sitting near its mouth, the lurker, shaded by the darkness of her 

 covered way, is ready to rush forth and seize on the first hapless 

 wanderer that becomes entangled in her fatal web. This 

 cunning artificer can only be captured by the artifice of getting 

 behind, and driving her upwards and out of her tunnel, into 

 which she always descends upon the first alarm. 



In addition to the silken material, of which they always 

 carry with them an internal magazine, there are various out- 

 door Spiders which employ leaves in the construction of their 

 retreats, and that after a fashion both ingenious and elegant. 



