A Bkast of Prhy 55 



that move tlicni. The other half of the spider 

 consists of the abdomen or stomacli, a soft, ronnd 

 ba<^, quaintly marked like a quail's head, and very 

 squashy in appearance. With this last part of 

 herself, the j^arden spider spins her snare or web 

 out of the manufactured material of her own 

 body. She spins it of her own dij^ested contents. 

 And as she has frequentlv to mend the web after 

 various mishaps, which occur in the natural course 

 of business — as when it is broken by the wind, 

 brushed aj^ainst 1 y passers-by, or torn and 

 manj^led by a bij^ fly or wasp — vou can readily 

 understand that she must eat in proportion ; 

 which is, no doubt, the true cause of lier almost 

 incredible voracity. In point of fact, a healthy 

 female spider spends all her time in catching prey 

 and eating it. 



In No. 4 we have a greatly enlarged back view 

 of the spinnerets from which the threads are pro- 

 duced, and a still more enlarged side-view below 

 of the separate little ducts from which the com- 

 ponent strands issue. According to circumstances, 

 she makes her threads simple or compound. The 

 sticky fluid of which they are formed is secreted 

 by powerful j^lands in the abdomen ; it is then 

 squeezed out throu<^h numerous minute tubes, of 

 ditierent calibres, and hardens in most cases when 

 exposed to the air, thou<fh the spiral threads with 

 the insect-catching drops on them maintain tiieir 

 viscid nature much lonj^er, so as to j^um the flies 

 down, rather than entangle them in meshes, as 

 with the common house-spider. 



