THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2456, 10 April 1901, Page 62

THE NATURALIST.

The Making- of the Spider's Web.

The spider is the original telegraph lineman. Indeed, he is something more. After his lines are stretched he establishes a "central,"' to which he runs as soon as any sort of vibratioD tells him that prey is entangled anywhere in his web. Once at central he listens a minute, then, having gathered the direction, glides away to weave still further netting of silken web about the luckless v.'a'-p or fly that has fallen into his clutches.

''He"' would more properly be wiitten "she," as in the case of so many insects the female spider is ever so much bigger, more powerful and resourceful than the male. Spider courtship is in fact a perilous piocess for the wooer. Unless he shows himself both brave and nimble he is in danger of being eaten before he gets the ear of his fair one. By way of evening matters, after marriage he shows himself a most heartless parent, seizing upon the clutch of eggs as soon as laid and devouring them before the eyes of their agonised mother. Thus it is that the mother spider keeps a death grip upon her bag of eggs. It is the daintiest, fairy silken pocket, varying in &Lape and &ize according to species, but always exceedingly handsome and well spun. At the first hiat of attack the mother seizes it and huines away, often f-pinning a thread as she goes in the effort to escppe. She will lose a leg, two legs even, cheei fully in its defence. That is not, however, so wonderful as the fact that the lost legs very quickly grow again. The name spider runs back to the Soxon, spinan, to spin, aLo the root of that austere word spinster. The Dutch name foi the insect is cop, or coB, a head, hence cobweb, head or cobwoven, is lmginMy allied to the so-famous Spion Kop. But cobweb is by no means 50 e^ressive as

gossamer cr sommerwebben, the summer woven.

In substance spider web is. neaily identical with s:lk. But the spinners of it are far too mm to reel it up into cocoonf, which may be plundered by man to feed the desire of the eyes and the pride of life. Web-spinning is very wonderful work. The workers, indeed, deceive high lank as civil engineers, and often deal with knotty problems in ways bespeaking almost human intelligence, as for instance when they spin loose threads so deftly ard with such nice calculation of • wind force that the lno«e ends aie carried exactly to the chosen spot, often a coup 7 e of yards away, and there anchor themselves of their own motion. It is ..hus the fairy cables which net trees and boughs, and stretch across all summer paths, are set in place. They are invisible save where the full sun glints upon them, or ehe yJ 1011 a misty morning strings thci.i with glw drops. None the less they hold fiim, and serve as aerial passageways along which the spider? run to and fro, safely and swift. Or els-p they seive a& guys to brace the main web. In spinning the spider shows architectural genius to match 'her engineering skill. First she surveys a site, then stretches across it a strung thread. She is not particular about having this first thread very taut — all that can be managed later. She spn.s another threid from the erd of this diagonally to another point, whence she goes to a thud anchorage, a fourth, even a fifth. Now she m-s a clear central inclined at li'iegular angles. The inclosing tbrcids have been spun of pure silk.

The next thing i- to go over them ltli a viscid exudation which will make whatever touches them sti'k. When thai is done she splas tl c web proper, running from side to side, with a thread trailing behind her. until all the web-spokes are in place. Before she weaves the rays together with crosdnc threads, she must know that both tbey and the anchor threads are dependable. So she runs about, Ftretching. straining every one, and if it breaks spinning it over. Where there is pronounced slack she either takes it up by splicing a new thread nt.tt the centre, and fastening it outside, or by attaching weip-hts, pebbles, bits of stick, and so on, to the web's lower edge. Now becms the k*t work — running round and round. The crossing threads aie spun double — first very fine, then with a oor-r-cr ply. At the middle, where the ray threads meet and cro*", she either builds herself a snug station, or after everything is done 1 cuts away the tangle and leaves a *mnll clear space. This is the parlour into which the traditional fly was invited — with disastrous results — but Madam Spider does not habitually sit in it. Instead she lurks out of sight, ambushed at the foot of a ray thread. When vibrations tell of prey, she ■seeks the parlour, locates the disturbance and straightway goes to see about it. A strong-winged insect, as a wasp or bumblebee, left to himself, will soon break out of her flimsy toils.