58 



THE ZEBRA SPIDER. 



made by the garden spider (Epeira diadema), or any similar species ; 

 while the centre of the web was much more opake and broader than I 

 had ever remarked in others. The whole web was also but slightly 

 sloped from a horizontal position, another striking peculiarity ; for the 

 garden spider and its congeners place their webs nearly vertical. The 

 rustling, which I had made amongst the bushes, had frightened the 

 spider to its retreat ; but I soon discovered it, and was not a little 

 surprised at its great size and the brightness of its colours, so different 

 from any species previously known to me. 



Pleased with my discovery, I took the creature home, and let her go in 

 my study, where she soon constructed a web in the corner of the 

 window ; but was compelled to make it more vertical than the one she 

 had previously made among the brambles. 



By careful search near the place, I discovered eight other Zebra 

 spiders, all females, and six nests of eggs, which I took with me, 

 as well as some of the living spiders to England, expecting to be able 

 to rear a few of them as a matter of curiosity, but I was unsuccessful ; 

 for not one of the eggs was hatched, probably from the air of my study 

 being too close, when compared with the sea breezes at La Heve, where 

 they had been destined by their mothers to winter. 



I never observed this spider depositing her eggs, but I have many 

 times seen other species do so, and infer that they proceed in a similar 

 manner. Looking at the size of the spider, and at that of the egg 

 which she lays, it appears almost incomprehensible how they could be 

 contained in so small a body ; but, by observing- them more closely, it 

 may be discovered that they have not, like the eggs of birds, a hard 

 shell, being on the contrary soft and compressible. Accordingly, 

 before they are laid they lie in the egg bag (ovarium) within the 

 spider's body, squeezed together in a flat manner, and only come into a 

 globular form after they are laid, in consequence of the equal pressure 

 of the air on every side, in the same way as we see dew drops, and 

 globules of quicksilver formed from the same cause. 



The eggs of spiders, it is worthy of remark, are in most cases, 

 though not always, placed in a roundish ball ; and as there is nothing 

 in nature without some good reason, if we can discover it, we may 

 infer that this form is designed to economise the materials of the 

 silken web which the mother spins round them by way of protection. 

 Whether I am right or not in this conjecture, there can be no question 

 as to the manner in which the ball is shaped, as I have often observed 

 the process. The mother spider, in such cases, uses her own body as 



