FOOD OF SPIDERS. 
373 
Food of Spiders. — It has been generally believed that 
the only food of spiders in this country is composed of 
small flies and other insects. But from what I have ob- 
served I have reason to conclude that some of the species 
feed also on other substances. I am aware that the idea 
would not perhaps be readily received, that the house-spider 
(Aranea domestica) does not live principally on flies, or in- 
sects. But the truth is, it weaves its web very commonly 
in places where flies seldom are seen ; and this fact alone 
would be quite unlike the perfect wisdom which every ani- 
mal exhibits in all matters connected with the sphere of its 
existence. Great numbers of the webs of these spiders are 
to be seen in the corners of dark damp cellars, and between 
the upper part of the couples of old barns and stables. A 
vast many webs may be also observed in country houses 
where the furniture has not been moved for some time, be- 
hind book-cases, in dark closets, or some such places where 
flies seldom approach. Their webs, too, are ill formed for 
catching insects ; the plane of the web lies horizontally, 
whilst those spiders that exist chiefly on flies, place the sur- 
faces of their webs perpendicularly. They are also too 
thickly woven, so that when they have received a little dust, 
with which they must be covered in a few hours, a fly finds 
little difiiculty in alighting upon them and flying off* again. 
I have no doubt that their webs are intentionally situa- 
ted so as to catch and retain the finer particles of what is 
generally termed dust ; but which in the places where the 
domestic spider weaves her web, is a mixture of the parti- 
cles of decomposed wood, lime, vegetable substances used 
as thatch, and the productions of the minute fungi called 
mould. This will not appear in the least degree contrary 
to what is known of the economy of nature, when we recol- 
lect that the larvae of the house-moth (Phalaena tinea) live 
often entirely on old fur or feathers, and that the timber 
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