60 WILDER, TERMEYER'S 



come out. This is something of a contrivance, it is true, 

 but yet so simple, that multiplying the flies gives little trou- 

 ble. 6 In this way, their food being abundant, the spiders 

 are able to remain always in the same place, without being 

 carried to the spot where they were taken, because they 

 feed themselves, and render themselves able to produce new 

 cocoons. 



By this means, too, we are enabled to keep the spiders 

 during the winter, the room being warmed, so that they shall 

 not perish. But spiders, like the majority of insects, pass 

 the winter in a dormant state, and therefore without need of 

 food And it is here to be remarked, that spiders, more 

 perhaps than any other insects, can endure long abstinence 

 from food, as has been noticed by all observers of their 

 habits, and especially by Redi. 3 It is true that these 

 cocoons are then smaller, and the eggs in them less numer- 

 ous, but yet the spiders will live, work and multiply without 

 food. 



If they are reared, not in the house, but in the fields 

 or in gardens, with the care above mentioned, it is well to 

 consider two things. 1st. Their number will be dimin- 

 ished on account of their many enemies, but whenever man 

 does not make war upon them, this dimunition will be in 

 great part compensated by their multiplication. 2nd. 

 The first year they will give few cocoons but after- 

 ward they will give them abundantly. I ought to add that 

 it will not be so easy to collect their cocoons as in a room, 

 but it must also be remembered, that the product by the for- 

 mer method costs only the labor of collecting, and this is 

 not a very difficult matter, since they are generally to be 

 found under planks and tiles, if there are any in the vicinity, 

 and always in places where they are nearly concealed from 

 their enemies, and not exposed to the sun or rain. 



e. Perhaps some of the new fly-catching machines may be found useful. 

 [REVISES.] 



3. Experiments at the Institute, Vol. i, page 81. 



