94 



ANIMAL LIFE 



are formed and concealed and managed are scarcely 

 appreciated. 



The web of the garden spider is essentially the 

 work of the mother. It is she who constructs it, 

 she who watches it and feels the pulse of its lines 

 from her hiding-place. When a mote is blown into 

 the web it is the mother who sallies forth to remove 

 it. When a fly is entangled it is she who emerges 

 and, enveloping the struggling prey with more silk, 

 retires to enjoy the feast. Her mate is but a casual 

 incident, whose presence is tolerated for a time, but 

 soon forgotten in the stress of capture and the care 

 of young. In times of unusual hunger he may even 

 be devoured. 



The web of spiders is unique. There is but one 

 other example of a net stretched out to catch prey, 

 and that is the seine-net of a caddis-fly larva, into 

 which river-borne flotsam drifts and is devoured by 

 the watcher (see p. 237). But spiders are the only 

 animals which have found a means of intercepting the 

 humming life of the air. 



The silk of which it is spun is the finest and 

 strongest natural product. In itself it is no new thing. 

 A gum which, when drawn out to a fine thread forms 

 silk, is produced by a gland opening into the mouth 

 of most caterpillars, of which the silkworm is but 

 one. That which distinguishes a spider's silk is its 

 variety. One kind of silk is used for the outer frame- 

 work and the radial lines, a second for the circular 

 lines, a third for the enwrapping of prey, and a fourth 



