THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 199 



phases, the mj^stery of which our savants have long been 

 iinable to penetrate. This silky tissue, spread over all 

 the herbage, was only the work of myriads of little spiders, 

 assisted by the beauty of the heavens. And these flakes 

 wandering in the air only represented the debris of it, 

 being nothing more than the mysterious filaments called 

 by the vulgar threads of the Virgin. 



In fact the flakes seen falling from the air in fine 

 autumn days, after having been looked upon as a simple 

 atmospheric product, condensed by some special agent. 



118. Garden-spider, male— ipcira diadema. 119. Female of the same. 



have been made out by Latreille to be only the handi- 

 work of different kinds of spiders, and particularly of the 

 garden-spiders, transported to a distance by the agitation 

 of the winds. ^ 



Other spiders, instead of displaying their productions 

 in the form of cloud-like carpets overspreading the verdure 

 of our fields, construct ccnnpact and solid hangings, with 

 which they line the insides of their dwellings. The mason 

 crab-spider {Mygale ccementaria, Latreille), very correctly 



1 According to Latreille, these "threads of the Virgin" are i)rinci])ally pro- 

 duced by young spiders belonging to the genera Epeira and Thomisus. Some 

 chemists thought with M. Raspail that they were only aerial albumen precipi- 

 tated to the earth in the form of flakes. 



