14 
NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN 
chases its prey headlong over the grass and the 
leaves of trees and shrubs, being able to jump 
from branch to branch with great agility. Other 
spiders, the commensals, live in the snares of the 
large web-building species and feed upon the 
smaller entrapped insects which the owner of the 
web does not care for. I will tell you about some 
of these interesting spider brigands some other 
time, or perchance you may discover them for 
yourselves. 
“ Just now I want to speak of a spider whose 
silk surpasses that of the silkworm. It belongs 
to the genus Nephila , and one of these days its 
product will come into active competition with 
that of the world-famous spinners. In Madagas¬ 
car, where the species is common, the French 
have founded schools to teach the natives how to 
grow this spider, and to wind, spin, and weave 
the silk. Demonstrations of the various processes 
were given at the Paris Exposition, together with 
an exhibit of silken bed hangings woven from the 
remarkable material. Most astonishing of all is 
the method by which the silk from the Nepliila 
is obtained: in the case of silkworms, you know, 
the silk is unwound from the silken cocoons spun 
by the worms as they prepare for the pupa state. 
The silk of the Nephila is pulled directly from the 
body of the living spider. And the method is 
certainly most ingenious! A little stanchion is 
