THE SNARE OF THE GIANT WOOD SPIDER. 
643 
into a quadrangular mass. It is clothed above in a pale yellow velvet, and armed 
in front with a pair of black massive jaws. Alongside the jaws are th? hairy 
palpi. Each is bright yellow in its proximal half, while the remainder is a 
dense black. Behind the thorax is the ponderous abdomen shaped like a 
truncated cone. The base is in front, vertical and abrupt, and connected with 
the thorax by a narrow moveable hinge. Behind it terminates in a blunt 
round point, and beneath the tip is a reddish prominence which supports the 
compact cluster of the spinnerets. The abdomen is strikingly decorated with 
a pattern of spots and lines. Its general colour is a dense black reliev^ed be- 
neath bj' a reddish tinge and a diversity of yellow spots. On either side of the 
cone the markings are more delicately laid. They consists of five longitud- 
inal streaks of pale yellowish wavy lines. On its upper surface the abdomen 
is more vividly adorned. A pair of bright longitudinal orange bands traverses 
it throughout its length, while in front are three broad transverse stripes of which 
two are brilhant orange and the intermediate one is black. The legs 
are extraordinarily long and slender, the fore leg being no less than three inches 
in length. All are black in colour with a yellow spot beneath the joints. They 
are clothed in delicate hairs and spines, and terminate in minute claws. Such 
is the largest of our Indian spiders. It has a span of six and a half inches, 
and its body is one and a half inches in length. 
The magnificent snare of this great spider can be spun only in some 
special site. In diameter it is almost the height of a man ; and consequently a 
clear wide space is necessary for the expansion of so immense a net. The spi- 
der knows well the most suitable place. It spreads it across 
some open clearing between the branches of the forest trees. It often selects a 
pathway or a shady water course, or it finds a tunnel in the tangled growth where 
the insects pass to and fro. Frequently it secures it above to the branches, and 
anchors it below by silken filaments to the low-lying foliage on the ground. It 
is only in these secluded spots that we find this marvellous sheet. There is no 
W’ork of architecture more worthy of our note. It is so delicate, 
so beautiful, so immense ; it has such a wonderful appearance of exactitude 
and of geometrical precision in all its parts. It is like a great transparent 
wheel, spread out as an invisible barrier and stretched tight between the forest 
trees. 
Given the favourable opportunity, we can witness no more fascinating work 
than the great Nephila at the architecture of her snare. She teaches us many 
detailed truths which the little Araneus could never show. She is of such 
size and bulk that all her complex movements are magnified to a much larger 
scale. Moreover she is so deliberate in every motion ; she performs every act 
so slowly, so decidedly and with such a movement of determination and precision 
that it is easy to follow the geometrical principles that underlie the intricate 
architecture of the snare. She thus yields more to observation than does 
the small and hasty Araneus, and I will endeavour to tell the additional facts 
she has disclosed. 
Though permitting of close observation, nev'ertheless she is timid and shy. 
At the slightest touch on her snare she immediately dashes away to the margin, 
and waits there till the danger has passed. She will work only in quietness and 
solitude and under cover of the darkness of night. It needs much patience and a 
quiet search to see this architect at her toil. None hav'e tried my patience 
higher ; none have rewarded it more. 
I now turn to the workmanship, and I ask the reader’s permission to repeat 
what I have elsewhere described. I must state again the essential features in 
the construction of the ordinary geometrical snare, for, unless the normal pro- 
cess is borne in mind, it will not be possible to realize the new lessons which 
the Nephila has to tell. Let us therefore first consider the ordinary geometrical 
snare. It is fashioned in this way. 
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