The Structure and Habits of Spiders. 71 



experiments and plans for this purpose are 

 those of Professor Wilder in "The Galaxy," vol. 

 viii. He shows how Nephila plumipes might be 

 raised in large numbers, each spider kept by 

 herself in a wire ring surrounded by water, fed 

 with flies bred for the purpose from old meat, 

 and milked every day of their thread. Each 

 cocoon of this spider contains from five hun- 

 dred to a thousand eggs. The young live 

 together for two or three weeks, spin a web in 

 common, and eat one another, or any small 

 insects that come in their way. Then they 

 begin to scatter, and each builds her own web ; 

 so that from this time they must be kept 

 separate, or they would eat one another. Every 

 day or two, each spider should be taken down, 

 put into a pair of stocks, and the thread pulled 

 out till it stops coming. In this way Wilder 

 thinks an ounce of thread could be got from 

 each spider during the summer. The thread 

 is from a seven-thousandth to a four-thousandth 

 of an inch thick, and much smoother and more 

 brightly colored, as well as finer, than that of 

 the silk-worm. Several threads would have to 

 be twisted together to get one of manageable 



