SPIDERS, SCORPIONS, AND MITES. 1 89 
surface, collects another air-bubble, which she adds to the 
former. When she has, in this manner, sufficiently en- 
larged her balloon of air, she oncloses it with silk of extreme 
whiteness. Within this balloon, which is open below, she 
then sits in a reversed position. She then stretches through 
the water irregular threads, which converge to her habi- 
tation, and which arrest minute water-mites and other 
insects. These are seized, and carried within doors to he 
eaten, but sometimes the prey is borne to the surface, and 
devoured on the bank.”* 
The accuracy of these observations has been recently 
confirmed by Professor Bell. 
Among the largest and best known of our native species 
is the handsome Garden Spider ( Epeira diadema). Its 
form is familiar to every one in the latter part of summer 
and autumn, its plump abdomen gray or fawn colour, 
elegantly spotted with white, and its legs widely extended, 
as it hangs head downward on its perpendicular web, 
which is formed of concentric circles of fine thread, on a 
frame-work of radiating lines. This geometric web is a 
beautiful example of an insect-manufacture. Having 
formed the foundation of her net and drawn the skeleton 
of it, by spinning a number of rays converging to the 
centre, she next proceeds, setting out from that point, to 
spin a spiral line of unadhesive thread, like that of the rays 
which it intersects, and to which she attaches it, and, 
after numerous circumvolutions, finishos it at the circum- 
ference. This line, together with the rays, serves as a 
scaffolding to walk over, and it also keeps the rays- pro- 
perly stretched. Her next labour is to spin a spiral line 
Aptere, ii. 3S3. 
