302 Fresh Water Aquarium 



is to return as quickly and in as direct a line 

 as possible to its proper element, the water. 

 It pays well to install this wonderful little 

 creature in an aquarium with a fairly dense 

 vegetation, where it will live without any 

 detriment to the other inhabitants, or to 

 place it by itself in a small vessel with some 

 aquatic plants. To see the Water Spider at 

 its best, both a male and female should be 

 secured. They can easily be distinguished, 

 as the male has a very small body and long 

 slender legs, whereas the female has a round 

 thick body and stronger, slightly shorter 

 legs. Their legs spread from about three- 

 quarters of an inch to an inch. When the 

 female spider intends to establish a home, 

 she looks about for a favorable position 

 among the stems of plants, where she begins 

 the weaving, or spinning, of a balloon- 

 shaped nest, of approximately the size of a 

 walnut, proceeding in just the same way as 

 does the land spider, — that is, drawing the 

 thread from the spinning glands at the ex- 



