ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



ON SPIDER WEBS AND SPIDER WEB 



FISH NETS 



Bit E- W. Gudger, 



Professor of Biology, State Normal College, 

 Greensboro, N. C. 



IN the Bulletin for March. 1918, I pub- 

 lished a short article on the spider-web fish- 

 net, giving all the accounts then at hand of 

 this interesting fishing apparatus. Since that 

 time, however, some additional data have come 

 to hand and it seems desirable to put these on 

 record, and all the more so because many people 

 have thought the first article a "fish story" and 

 not worthy of credence. The data now to be 

 presented will amply confirm the accounts pre- 

 viously given. 



The account in question had its origin in a 

 communication from the distinguished Russian 

 traveller. Miklucho-Maclay, to the German ex- 

 plorer. Kubary, and by him passed on to Louis 

 Becke, the Australian South Sea trader and 

 writer of charming books on South Sea Life 

 and customs. In addition to a search made for 

 me at the time of the writing of the first article 

 through the available publications of Miklucho- 

 Maclay, I have myself made during the past 

 summer a careful search through his bibliogra- 

 phy for all titles bearing on New Guinea. The 

 New Guinea papers were all gone through one 

 by one and page by page, but nowhere was 

 there found any account of the spider-web fish- 

 net story as related by Kubary. The record, if 

 any was made, seems to have been lost. 



As opportunity has offered during the past 

 six months, notes have been made of unusually 

 strong spider-webs. And interesting in them- 

 selves as well as furnishing corroboratory evi- 

 dence, some paragraphs may well be devoted to 

 such accounts. 



As early as 1725, Sir Hans Sloane in his book 

 on Jamaica wrote of a large wood spider which 

 made nets "so strong as to give a man inveigled 

 in them trouble for sometime" and he quotes 

 Jan de Laet that at Cumana there were spiders' 

 webs so strong that considerable force was need- 

 ed to break them. Laet wrote somewhere in the 

 sixteen hundreds, but I have not been able to 

 verify the citation, nor one from Oveido to the 

 same effect for the West Indies. 



Later on. (17-15), Win. Smith records the fact 

 that on St. Kitts, Leeward Islands, certain huge 

 spiders make such large webs reaching from 

 bush to bush that they are troublesome to pe- 

 destrians. He quote Woodes Rogers that at St. 

 Vincent's, Cape Verde Islands, there are found 

 spiders' webs of even stronger texture than 

 those found at St. Kitts. This statement of 



Rogers' I have not had opportunity to verify by 

 reference to his book. 



Jacobs (1844) says of certain large spiders 

 in Mauritius that: "Their webs, nearly as large 

 and strong as small fishing nets, and suspended 

 in the open spaces between the underwood, fre- 

 quently and seriously retarded our progre-^. 



Of the neighboring island of Madagascar 

 (loq. cit.) quotes from Purchas Peter William- 

 son Flores and one Keeling, that there are spi- 

 ders therein which make exceedingly strong 

 webs. 



Darwin in his celebrated "Voyage of the Bea- 

 gle" (1860) notes that at Rio de Janeiro the 

 paths in the forest were "barricaded" with the 

 strong yellow webs of an Epeira. 



Moseley (1892), writing of the large and 

 strong spiders' webs previously referred to as 

 being found on the Cape Verde Islands, says: 



"A large and handsome yellow spider makes 

 large webs of yellow silk everywhere among the 

 bushes. The silk is remarkably strong, and the 

 supporting threads of the web often bend the 

 tips of the tamarisk twigs, to which they are 

 fastened, right down. Either the spider drags 

 on the thread and bends the twig, or the twig 

 becomes bent in growing, after being made 

 fast to." 



Turning now to New Guinea, we find D'Al- 

 bertis in his book on that great island, saying 

 (Vol. II, p. 15), that near the mouth of the riv- 

 er Fly. "A large kind of spider abounds to an 

 extraordinary extent. This insect constructs a 

 web from one branch to another at the height 

 of a man from the ground, by which it causes 

 the greatest inconvenience to those who walk in 

 the island." 



In the not far-distant Celebes. Hickson speaks 

 of huge, coarse webs made by large and bril- 

 liant colored spiders. While in the nearby Sol- 

 omon Islands. Woodford (1890) writes of large 

 spider-webs woven across the paths which were 

 so strong that catching him across the face they 

 offered considerable resistance. 



Slightly outside the line of this search, but 

 still worthy of quotation, is Douglas Rannie, 

 who. on p. 94 of his "My Adventures Among 

 South Sea Savages," London, 1912, speaks of 

 seeing at Toinan Island a bag made of spider's 

 web used by its native owner to carry a small 

 bamboo box. Similarly somewhat foreign to 

 this article but still of very great interest is the 

 following quotation from A. S.. Meek's "A Nat- 

 uralist in Cannibal Land," London, 1913. On 

 p. 123 he writes: 



"My natural history notes on this district 

 (inland New Guinea, near the head of the Aroa 



