HOUSE AND GARDEN 
i 8 
March, 1912 
Some spiders weave a mass of crossing lines connected with a cobweb¬ 
like sheet below. Prey is entangled and drops to the sheeted web 
or is made prisoner in the maze 
the early morning sun and have paused in admiration of the work. 
Few of us have given it further attention than this, have not 
wondered how it was constructed any more than we have wished 
to solve the why or wherefore of the curiously voluted petals of 
the orchid or the iris. Let's begin, then, some evening and go 
where the webs hang and if we use a little patience we may learn 
with what nice judgment and fine artistry the little creatures 
build. 
There are several main types of webs that we may notice. One 
is the orb hung vertically and resembling somewhat a target with 
many rings divided by a number of radii running from the small 
hub at the center that corresponds to the bull’s-eye. Another web 
like this in form, is often found hung horizontally. A third 
type is the closely knit fabric stretched as we see it in the cobweb. 
Other varieties of spiders combine these forms or vary them, as 
in the triangular snares that resemble a few 
segments of the orb 
In the center surrounded by a free space is the closely spun hub where the spider generally stays 
web stretched from a single thread, or the maze of twisted short 
threads that the labyrinth spider spins. This is not the complete 
scientific arrangement, but is the superficial one that the layman 
might evolve from an attempt at classification. Nevertheless, a 
single variety of spider will make but one kind of web that is 
characteristic of the class. That is, the garden spider, for in¬ 
stance, will always make a horizontal web which, though it may 
vary a little in position, will always be hung at or nearly parallel 
to the ground. 
If we look carefully some warm evening we shall in all prob¬ 
ability find a spider clinging to some stalk and if we are discreet, 
shall see a vertical web constructed. The small creature that we 
discover appears ill at ease, runs out on a small branch and back 
again and gives the impression of waiting for something to 
happen. If we watch closely we may notice that the spider stops 
from time to time and raises the tip of its abdomen. Here it is 
that the spinnerets are located and we may see a thin filament 
start and be drawn out at length on the breeze. It floats out and 
if the wind is favorable becomes entangled in one of several twigs 
that we see opposite. Now the spider seems to test it by slight 
pulls with his forelegs, and in a little while may be seen to essay 
a crossing on this slender bridge line. As he goes he drags a 
thread after him, which seems to unite with the first foundation 
line. It is in this fashion that he 
builds and strengthens the sup¬ 
port of the web to be constructed. 
After a while he will be seen to 
drop from a point in this main 
thread by another line that pays 
out as he falls. This he makes 
fast to something on the ground 
and ascending it affixes a thread 
at or near the center. Climbing 
upward he may be noticed carry¬ 
ing this new line in one of his 
claws. He brings it up to the 
bridge line and crossing to a point 
near one extremity of this makes 
it fast. Thus far there is already 
built a strong suspension line, an¬ 
other connecting this with the 
ground, and from this ground line 
still another traveling off at an 
angle and joining the main line, 
with which it makes a triangle. 
The upper part of the dropped 
line and this last one will be radii 
in the completed web. 
So the animal goes on spinning: 
sometimes carrying a line and 
it, sometimes lowering 
fastening 
