358 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



seldom answer to commit a floating thread to the 

 wind, as is done by other species. Homberg's spider, 

 after stretching as many lines by way of tcarp, as it 

 deemed sufficient between the two walls of the corner 

 which it had chosen, proceeded to cross this in the 

 way our weavers do in adding the tvoof, with this 

 difference, that the spider's threads were only laid on 

 and not interlaced.* The domestic spiders, however, 

 in these modern days, must have forgot this mode of 

 weaving, for none of their webs will be found to be 

 thus regularly constructed. 



The geometric, or net-working spiders ( Tendeuses, 

 Latr.), are as well known in most districts as any of 

 the preceding; almost every bush and tree in the 

 gardens and hedge rows having one or more of their 

 nets stretched out in a vertical position between ad- 

 jacent branches. The common garden spider {Epeira 

 diadema), and the long-bodied spider [Teiragnatha 

 extensa), are the best known of this order. 



The chief care of a spider of this sort is, to form 

 a cable of sufficient strength to bear the net she 

 means to hang upon it; and, after throwing out a 

 floating line as above described, when it catches pro- 

 perly she doubles and redoubles it with additional 

 threads. On trying its strength she is not con- 

 tented with the test of pulling it with her legs, but 

 drops herself down several feet from various points 

 of it, as we have often seen, swinging and bobbing 

 with the whole weight of her body. She proceeds 

 in a similar manner with the rest of the frame-work 

 of her wheel-shaped net; and it may be remarked 

 that some of the ends of these lines arc not simple, 

 but in form of a Y, giving lier the additional security 

 of two attachments instead of one. 



In constructing the body of the net, the most re- 



* Mem. de TAcad des Sciences pour 1707, p 339. 



