214 WEB OF THE HOUSE AND GARDEN SPIDERS. 



Hentz states, that the web " is narcotic, and has 

 been administered internally, in some cases of fever, 

 with success." * 



The threads composing the webs of the house- 

 spiders appear to be formed entirely of one kind of 

 silk, and flies are caught by their claws being en- 

 tangled in the meshes. It is not so with those which 

 are situated in the open air, and which exhibit 

 so much regularity of structure, as to be termed 

 Geometric. Mr. Blackwall, in a late number of the 

 " Transactions of the Linnean Society," states, that 

 " they are composed of three kinds of silk ; and that 

 although the nets lose their viscidity when exposed to 

 the influence of sun and weather, yet, when artifi- 

 cially protected from the effects of these, they retain 

 it almost unimpaired for many months." f In those 

 webs, the threads forming the circles are closely 

 studded with minute dew-like globules, which, in 

 fact, are composed of a viscid gum, sufliciently adhe- 

 sive to retain the insects which fly into the net. 

 Those concentric circles lose their viscidity by ex- 

 posure to the air, and in ordinary circumstances are 

 renewed every twenty- four hours. J 



Shakspeare seems, in my opinion, to have been 

 aware that there are diff"erences in the habits of 



* Silliman's " Journal of Science," October, 1831, p. 103. 



t Entomological Magazine, No. v. p. 446. 



t Kirby and Spence, vol. i. p. 419. 



