59 



opened her spinnerets in the opposite direction. If the draught continued, a thread was 

 drawn out by it, which at length caught upon something, when the spider drew it tight 

 and escaped on it. If the air was kept still, or the spider covered with a glass, she 

 remained on tire stick till taken off. 



These experiments have been repeated, and show that 

 the spider does not shoot or throw the web in any way, 

 but takes advantage of currents of air, and allows threads 

 to be blown out to a considerable distance. 



There is a still more curious use of this method of spin- 

 ning threads ; that is, in flying. Small spiders, especially on 

 fine days in the autumn, get up on the tops of bushes and 

 fences, each apparently anxious to get as high as possible, 

 and there raise themselves up on tiptoe, and turn their bodies 



up, as m J?ig 25, with their heads toward the wind, and spin- 

 nerets open. A thread soon blows out from the spinnerets, 

 and, if the current of air continues, spins put to a length of 

 two or three yards, and then offers enough resistance to the 

 wind to carry the spider away with it up into the air. As 

 soon as she is clear, the spider turns around, and grasps the 

 thread with her feet, and seems to be very comfortable and 

 contented till she strikes against something. Sometimes 

 they rise rapidly, and are soon out of sight ; at other times 

 they blow along just above the ground. 



This habit is not confined to any particular kinds of spiders, but is practised by 

 many small species of Erigone, and by the young of many spiders of all families, that 

 when adult would be too large for it. The majority of spiders that fly in autumn are the 

 young of several species of Lycosa, that seem to spend the greater part of October in trying 

 to get as far above ground as possible. The best places to watch for them are garden- 

 fences, where they often swarm, and can be seen more distinctly than on bushes. 



It is still unexplained how the thread 

 starts from the spinnerets. It has been 

 often asserted that the spider fastens the 

 thread by the end, and allows a loop to blow 

 out in the wind ; but in most cases, this is 

 certainly not done, only one thread being 

 visible. Sometimes, while a thread is blown 

 from the hinder spinnerets, another from 

 the front spinnerets is kept fast to the 

 ground (fig. 26) ; so that when the spider 

 blows away, it draws out a thread behind it 

 entirely independent of the one from which 

 it hangs. Sometimes, instead of a single 

 thread, several are blown out at once, like a Ion 



brush. 



Fig. 26. 



9. — "Water Spiders. 



One of the most curious and interesting of the spider family is the Argyroneta aquatica, 

 or Water-spider, which lives for the greater part of its life beneath the surface of water. 

 Kirby and Spence give the following description of its habitation : — 



"It is built in the midst of water, and formed, in fact, of air ! Spiders are usually 

 terrestrial, but this is aquatic, or rather amphibious ; for though she resides in the midst 

 of water, in which she swims with great celerity, sometimes on her belly, but more fre- 

 quently on her back, and is an admirable diver, she not unfrequently hunts on shore, and 

 having caught her prey, plunges with it to the bottom of the water. Here it is she forms 

 her singular and unique abode. She would evidently have but a very uncomfortable time 

 were she constantly wet, but this she is sagacious enough to avoid ; and by availing her- 

 self of some well-known philosophical principles, she constructs for herself an apartment in 



