Woodside. 1 3 



secretes a sticky fluid; from this gland grow six tiny 

 projections, which are provided with minute tubes, called 

 spinnerets (Fig. 3), and down these tubes the viscid fluid 

 passes ; through the extremities of the spinnerets the fluid 

 is expressed, solidifying immediately it is exposed to the 

 atmosphere, and forming a silken thread ; the thread thus 

 formed is built up into the webs in a great variety of 

 patterns. 



The various patterns adopted by spiders in their web- 



FIG. 3. SPINNERETS OF SPIDER. 



spinning are very important, because naturalists have 

 grouped spiders into four classes on this character alone. 

 Here is a spider's net spun in the form of a round ring or 

 orbit, with straight lines of thread radiating from the centre 

 to the outer ring, whilst other rings, getting smaller and 

 smaller as they approach the centre, are spun parallel with 

 the outside ring (Fig. 2). These are called Orbitelarice, from 

 this simple fact. There is another web suspended on this 

 bush, with threads crossing and recrossing each other like 

 a net, and hence the Latin word " rete," which means " a 

 net," gives us the class called Retitelarice. 



