ox ARACHNIDA. 447 



slightest impression is sufficient to advertise the spider of the 

 presence of its prey. It proceeds with the rapidity of lightning 

 to the spot where the insect appears. If this, for instance, 

 should prove to be a large fly, it envelopes it with a tolerably 

 strong layer of silk, which it draws from its spinnerets ; it then 

 attaches it to its own hinder part, and drags it within its den, 

 that it may suck and devour it at leisure. If the fly be small, 

 the spider carries it off without any envelope. But if, on the 

 contrary, an insect which is larger than itself should fall into 

 the net, it assists to disembarrass and disengage it, by break- 

 ing some threads of the web, which it mends afterwards ; or, if 

 the efforts which it has made have broken the web too much, 

 it abandons it and forms a new one. Some species simply 

 suck flies ; others devour them altogether, leaving only the 

 hardest parts. As the araneides have not always as many flies 

 as they can eat, they are so organized as to be able to support 

 a very long fast ; but when opportunity offers, they make full 

 amends for this by gormandizing. They pass the winter in a 

 sort of lethargy, and take no nourishment during that season. 

 In every other, they can still remain many months without 

 eating. It appears, from the observations of M. Amedee le 

 Pelletier, that they have the faculty of reproducing the feet 

 which they have lost. 



When one of these animals wishes to commence its web, it 

 causes to issue from its nipples a drop of the silky fluid. It ap- 

 plies it against a wall or tree, and then removes from it, spinning. 

 In proportion as it proceeds, this fluid, which at first was soft, 

 assumes a consistence, grows thick, and forms a thread, which 

 the spider glues to the opposite end of the wall, or to another 

 branch of the tree. It is thus that all the araneides commence 

 their web ; but they do not all finish it in the same manner. 

 The domestic spider retvu-ns along the line to fix another to 

 the place from whence it set out, returns on its path, to do the 

 same at the other end, and continues the same raanceiivre until 



