Weavers and Spinners. 



in quick succession, hauling in the line and letting it 

 go as fast as she can, so as thoroughly to entangle her 

 prey. 



The Sheet-weaving Spiders weave their snares so 

 closely that when first finished they look like sheets of 

 finest woven muslin. To this family belong the hairy 

 long-legged spiders which weave the familiar cobwebs 

 in the corners and on the ceilings of rooms, and pro- 

 duce the great dusty festoons to be seen in cellars and 

 outhouses. These snares are woven of the finest silk, 

 and take a long time in their construction. First the 

 spider stretches a few delicate foundation lines across 

 the corner of the wall she has selected for the site of 

 her snare, and upon these lines she walks to and fro 

 incessantly, strewing the finest silken threads from her 

 spinnerets upon the foundation lines. So fine is her 

 spinning that some hours elapse before she is able to 

 weave even a moderately stout web ; but when once 

 the sheet has been formed the spider devotes a great 

 deal of her spare time to going over it, adding more 

 and more silk from day to day, and in this way gradu- 

 ally thickening it. At one corner of her sheet snare the 

 spider weaves a silken tubular nest, in which she awaits 

 the advent of any insect which may alight upon her 

 snare, when she immediately dashes out and pounces 

 upon it. At first these sheet webs are beautiful objects ; 

 but dust and other particles floating in the air settle 

 on them, and soon convert them into unsightly, grubby 

 cobwebs. 



A very remarkable weaver is the little Water Spider, 

 which, though strictly an air-breather, spends almost 

 the whole of its life beneath the surface of the ponds 



139 



