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LETTER XIII. 
FOOD OF INSECTS — continued. 
STRATAGEMS EMPLOYED IN PROCURING IT, 
Tur stratagems of insects in obtaining their food are now to engage our at- 
tention. I shall not dwell on those inartificial modes of surprising their 
prey, of which examples may be found amongst almost every order of 
insects, such as watching behind a leaf or other object affording conceal- 
ment until its approach, but shall proceed to describe the various artifices 
of the race of spiders, of which there are several hundred distinct species, 
differing essentially from each other both in characters and manners. 
Many of these are constantly under our eyes ; and were it not that we 
are accustomed to neglect what is the subject of daily occurrence, we 
should never behold a spider’s web without astonishment. What, if we 
had not witnessed it, would scem more incredible than that any animal 
should spin threads ; weave these threads into nets more admirable than 
ever fowler or fisherman fabricated; suspend them with the nicest judg- 
ment in the place most abounding in the wished-for prey, and there, con- 
cealed, watch patiently its approach? In this case, as in so many others, 
we neglect actions in minute animals, which in the larger would excite our 
endless admiration. How would the world crowd to see a fox which 
should spin ropes, weave them into an accurately meshed net, and extend 
this net between two trees for the purpose of entangling a flight of birds! 
Or should we think we had eyer expressed sufficient wonder at seeing a 
fish which obtained its prey by a similar contrivance? Yet there would, 
in reality, be nothing more marvellous in their procedures than in those of 
ae which, indeed, the minuteness of the agent renders more won- 
erful. 
All spiders do not spin webs. A considerable number adopt other 
means for catching insects. Of these I shall speak hereafter. At present 
{shall endeavour to give you a clear idea of the operations of the weavers, 
explaining suecessively the instruments by which they spin, the mode of 
forming their nets, together with the various descriptions of them, and the 
manner in which they entrap and secure their prey. 
The thread spun by spiders is in substance similar to the silk of the silk- 
worm and other caterpillars, but of a much finer quality, As in them, it 
proceeds from reservoirs, into which it is secreted in the form of a viscid 
gum; but in the mode of its extrication is very dissimilar, issuing not from 
the mouth, but the hinder part of the abdomen. If you examine a spider, 
you will perceive in this part four or six little teat-like protuberances or 
Spinners, These are the machinery through which, by a process more 
Singular than that of rope-spinning, the thread is drawn, Each spinner 
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