794 Marvels of the Universe 
to the end of a twig that is on 
the windward side of the gap 
she wishes to bridge, she lets 
out a length of silk which the 
breeze carries across, and its 
own adhesiveness attaches it 
to a twig on the opposite side. 
By experimental pulls the 
Spider assures herself that the 
attachment is good, and then 
runs across it, paying out a 
second thread as she goes to 
strengthen the first. One or 
two similar lines are thrown 
across below the first, and other 
more or less vertical lines are 
run across to connect them 
together and make them taut. 
Guy lines are run out from 
near the ends to be attached 
to adjacent twigs and leaves to 
steady this framework, and 
from a point near the middle 
the top and bottom lines are 
again connected. From half- 
way down this vertical line she 
commences to construct the 
“spokes ”’ or radii of her wheel, 
attached at pretty equal dis- 
tances (which depends upon 
the size and the length of 
stride of the engineer), until 
she has them radiating in all 
directions. | When this elabo- 
Photo bu] (H. J. Shepstone. 
A TENT-SHAPED SNARE. rate wheel is complete she 
Webs of this character may frequently be found on furze-bushes and other begins to convert it into a net 
shrubs. A sheet of silken tissue forms a sort of floor below the tent. 
by walking round and round 
in an ever-increasing spiral, paying out as she goes a line of a special character. This special 
line is dotted at very short intervals with minute globules of a gummy liquid, as is beauti- 
fully shown in the photograph on page 792. In this photograph the Spider will be seen sitting in 
the centre, with her feet on the principal lines that she may know by her exquisite sense of touch 
when any insect has blundered into her net. 
Other species of the same genus construct their webs on similar lines, but not all so elaborately. 
Smaller webs, intermediate between simple lines and these symmetrical or geometrical webs, as they 
have been termed, may be found along the hedgerows. One such is shown in the illustration on 
page 793. Much more imposing, and really beautiful if seen early on an autumn morning when 
the dew makes it much more evident, is the tent-like structure shown above. Here an upright 
shoot of the furze has been adopted as the tent-pole, and from its terminal spine long lines have 
been carried to the tips of more horizontal branches all around the bush, the intervening spaces 
