Armitt : Observations on Spiders at Rydal. 



75 



which runs swiftly by. In a laurel bush of the bank, this 

 sint^ular, long-bodied spider has its home each year, and when 

 June comes round I begin to look for the fine snares among the 

 leaves, or turn over the leaf-backs to spy upon the weaver, who 

 lies — long fore-legs extended straight out in front — like a long, 

 dark stain (no living thing !) upon the green. About the middle 

 of August the young ones are out and spinning for themselves ; 

 and I have counted as many as ten at work at once. The time 

 varies from six to seven in the evening, and the web, like the 

 Metas, is completed in something over half an hour. The 

 method of weaving is much the same, the worker occasionally 

 precipitating itself on to a leaf below, to achieve a radiating 

 line from the centre, which is marked by a good blob of 

 gossamer. When one line is achieved, the spider does not 

 proceed to the next, but goes to the opposite side, to preserve 

 the balance of the web. If a line has been falsely placed it is 

 altered. The spokes complete, a few fine concentric rings are 

 made from the middle. Then the worker desists, and restarts 

 from the circumference, running up a spoke until it is able to 

 leap upon the next, and running down this with the line trailing 

 behind, which it tightens and fixes to the required distance, and 

 gradually working inwards till the space (unlike the Mcta's) is 

 completely filled with concentric lines. This spider's lithe springs 

 from spoke to spoke give its web-spinning a gay, dancing 

 character. If it finds, early in the process, that its centre 

 is not true, it alters it. A web, measuring 7 to 8 inches 

 across, with stay lines of some 10 inches, is finished in the time 

 mentioned. 



Tetragnatha extensa makes no hood, but relies on its attitude, 

 with four legs extended straight out in front and four behind, to 

 evade the sight. It is very cute in the disposition of its legs. 

 I took up one whose web hung in a Phlox plant, and after 

 examination replaced it there : whereupon it did not hide under 

 a leaf, but crept upwards, and with its hind legs it clasped the 

 pistil of the flower (from which the petals had fallen) and placed 

 its front legs straight out in air, and rested so, the legs looking 

 just like the fine stamens of the flower. Such an intelligent 

 adaptation to special environment was equalled by a white 

 butterfly in spring, which, after fluttering gaily about the garden, 

 ■chose not only the white flowers of Rannnctiliis ample xicaii lis 

 to rest upon, where it was merged in the mass, but a special 

 I flower of the clump from which the petals were half fallen, and 

 where it seemed to complete the scheme of colour. 



iqo5 March i. 



