358 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



more circuitous route of travelling to the opposite 

 wall, carrying in one of the claws the end of the 

 thread previously fixed, lest it should stick in the 

 wrong place. This we believe to be the correct state- 

 ment, for as the web is always horizontal, it would 

 seldom answer to commit a floating thread to the 

 wind, as is done by other species. Homberg's spider, 

 after stretching as many lines, by way of warp, as it 

 deemed sufficient between the two walls of the corner 

 which it had chosen, proceeded to cross this in the 

 way our weavers do in adding the woof, with this 

 difference, that the spider's threads were only laid on, 

 and not interlaced.* The domestic spiders, however, 

 in these modern days, must have forgot this mode of 

 weaving, for none of their webs will be found to be 

 thus regularly constructed. 



The geometric or net-working spiders (Tendeuses, 

 Latr.) are as well known in most districts as any of 

 the preceding; almost every bush and tree in the 

 gardens and hedge-rows having one or more of their 

 nets stretched out in a vertical position between ad- 

 jacent branches. The common garden-spider (Epeira 

 diadema), and the long-bodied spider (Tetragnaiha 

 extensa), are the best known of this order. 



The chief care of a spider of this sort is, to form 

 a cable of sufficient strength to bear the net she means 

 to hang upon it ; and, after throwing out a floating 

 line as above described, when it catches properly she 

 doubles and redoubles it with additional threads. 

 On trying its strength she is not contented with the 

 test of pulling it with her legs, but drops herself down 

 several feet from various points of it, as we have often 

 seen, swinging and bobbing with the whole weight of 

 her body. She proceeds in a similar manner with the 

 rest of the frame-work of her wheel-shaped net ; and 

 it may be remarked that some of the ends of thes^ 

 * Mem. de l'Acad. (les Sciences pour 1707 



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• p. 33<). , 



