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OBSERVATIONS ON SPIDERS AT RYDAL. 



MARY L. ARMITT. 



A CASUAL observer of Nature even cannot but be excited to 

 curiosity by the doings of spiders. Secret of habit as they are, 

 cunning- in choice of some lair where they are closely concealed, 

 largely nocturnal in habit, they are yet revealed by the snares 

 they weave ; and the beautiful orb-web, or sheet-web, or 

 irregular lacy structure shown by the glistening of the morning 

 dew, proves the activity of the hidden creature in the past night. 

 Through the bright sunshine it waits in its den, while its toils 

 (like the fishermen's nets laid at sea) do the work of catching 

 and entangling its prey. Its odd power of weaving its snare 

 from its own body, and even in many cases of constructing 

 house and home from the same substance ; the artful variety 

 of its methods, its beauty, its speed, its seeming ferocity, all 

 make it an attractive object of notice. And even an amateur 

 like the writer, with no special knowledge on the subject, but 

 helped by an expert to the names of the most obvious species 

 met with in garden and neighbourhood, may gain sufficient 

 acquaintance with them to make the renewal of that acquaint- 

 ance each season a pleasure. 



And there are some typical and interesting forms among the 

 obvious species of the place, as w^ll be seen by a recital of them. 

 Perhaps it should be said, first of all, that the common or garden 

 spider, Aranetis diademetiis , is conspicuous by its absence 

 from the garden ; and only the variety which Mr. Pickard- 

 Cambridge says is found ' in the mountain rocky districts ' has 

 been taken from a large loose web on a neighbouring field wall. 

 This fine species, whose immense and stout snares stand the 

 force of the sea-breezes on the face of St. Bees Headland, 

 has indeed been introduced into the garden. Two handsome 

 specimens, whose time had been usefully spent in a garden near 

 Liverpool, during a summer when wasps were numerous, in 

 catching these pests, were placed in nasturtium plants to recall 

 their former home. But they did not establish a race. One, at 

 least, existed for a time, and in the following September had its 

 home in the ivy by an upstairs window, and spread its toils and 

 caught flies ; but after the end of October, when it went into 

 retreat, and tied a leaf down for seclusion, it was seen no more. 



There are two species of spiders, however, that weave 

 geometrical or orb-webs, very common in the garden. One 



1905 March i. 



