The Life of the Spider 



sand are stuck together with a cement of silk ; 

 and the whole resists the pressure of the 

 fingers. 



If we continue to unshell the kernel, we 

 find, below this mineral layer, a last silken 

 tunic that forms a globe around the brood. 

 No sooner do we tear this final covering than 

 the frightened little ones run away and scatter 

 with an agility that is singular at this cold and 

 torpid season. 



To sum up, when working in the natural 

 state, the Labyrinth Spider builds around the 

 eggs, between two sheets of satin, a wall com- 

 posed of a great deal of sand and a little silk. 

 To stop the Ichneumon" s probe and the teeth 

 of the other ravages, the best thing that oc- 

 curred to her was this hoarding which 

 combines the hardness of flint with the 

 softness of muslin. 



This means of defence seems to be pretty 

 frequent among Spiders. Our own big House 

 Spider, Tegenaria domestica, encloses her 

 eggs in a globule strengthened with a rind 

 of silk and of crumbly wreckage from the 

 mortar of the walls. Other species, living in 

 the open under stones, work in the same way. 

 They wrap their eggs in a mineral shell held 

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