MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 843 



Another short pause followed. Then our builder restarted at the outside 

 of the web circle, and, working in the opposite direction, commenced to fill 

 in the wide space betAveen the outermost thread last fixed and the cross 

 circular thread immediately inside it. The manner of doing it was the 

 same as before excef)t that the spider, which previously had worked in the 

 same direction as the hands of a clock, now worked in the reverse direction 

 and backwards towards the centre of the circle. The spaces between the 

 cross webs now put in were a shade greater than the spaces between those 

 at the centre of the circle. 



In this way the spider reached and completed the cross thread next in- 

 side the penultimate cross circular thread put in on its outward journey. 

 At this stage a sharp show of rain came on, and the spider stopped. 

 The rain continued,' the drops striking and shaking the whole web; where- 

 upon the spider scuttled to the centre, eat up the collection of white matter 

 and the converging ray threads at the very centre up to the first or inner- 

 most thread of the spiral. Here it now remained. The web was now as in 

 Fig. 4. 



The rain now drove me indoors. Coming out later I found the spider 

 and web were exactly as I had left them ; but later still, I noticed that the 

 web had been completed, the cross threading to the narrower intervals 

 having been put in all the way to the centre. 



I was particularly anxious to see whether, when moving along an existing 

 thread, the spider continued to weave and, so to say, duplicated the thread 

 it was on. As far as could be made out, this was not the case. Weaving 

 was apparently stopped and started afresh from the point at which the new- 

 thread was to begin. 



(Note. — ^In the figures, I have reduced the number of threads, both ray 

 and cross, so as to avoid taking up too much space. They are about g^th 

 sizie of original ; but no attempt has been made to draw them to scale, as 

 this would only confuse the lines.) 



G. deRHE— P. 

 Lahore, 21st August 1916. 



No. XXII.— WHITE ANTS CROSSING OPEN GROUND. 



Before we left Bombay last April, we stored a large tin-lined dealwood box 

 in a room which was securely locked. The box rested on a teakwood floor 



