THE GOSSAMER SPIDER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4702, 26 May 1883, Page 3

THE GOSSAMER SPIDER.

It takea nothing from the poetry that lies in the weft of the gossamer when it is known to be the work of an unconsidered spider, and that it serves some praoticol purpose (not yet satisfactorily explained) of the producer. By some it is olaimed that this floating web is not spread with predacious intent, but rather as a means of aerial navigation ; indeed, these vague and indeterminate threads would hardly disturb a gnat's cotillon, if blown in their path. Hitherto we have regarded the spider sg a humble, plodding creature of the earth, an unaspiring, stay-at-home citizen ; but this new aoronautio hypothesis hints that the poor insect is a very transcendentalism, an ideal voyager. Its journey may not be as sublime as the flight of the skylark, but it is not a whit less witching and delusive. It seems scarcely credible that this sailing spider should be able, as some have supposed, to direot the course of its filmy parachute, having neither rudder, ballaßt, nor canvas. Doubtless the wind often carries up both wob and weaver, the latter in the predicament of a balloonist clinging to the ropes of his runaway car. Some naturalists assert that the gossamer spider instinotively takes advantage of the levity of the atmosphoro, thrußting out its threads until they reach a current of warmer and rarer air, which draws thorn upward, the spider going along with the uncompleted web. Whether it IB capable of cutting short its journey and casting anchor at pleasure is, indeed, questionable. However, it would Beem that there are acrobatic or leaping spiders, that use their webs as buoys in traversing short distances by air ; else, how come thoße fine gluey flosseß morning and evening stretched straight as a surveyor's line between neighbouring trees ? It is not likely that the spider, after fastening its clew in ono tree, descended aod reached the other terminus by a tedious detour along the ground. It must have bridged the inter* vening space by some rapid and dexterous method, to which the exploits of a Sam Patch or a Blondin were absolutely tame and ventureloss. If it could be proven that this sagaoious insect is roally possessed of navigating instinct and habits, why not suppose it extends its journeys, travelling from one latitude to another. Thoße phantom navies of the gossamer summer sky were perhaps going the came way as tho autumn birds of passage. Are spiderß migratory in their habits P may, at some future time, be the subject of sorious inquiry and discussion. I was never in luck to find the gossamer weaver at homo frosn its voyages, but more than once have " spoken " its oraf t on the high Beu, and received serviceable weather hints. Even in midwinter I have soen occasional shimmering filaments among the dry twigi and grasses, but could never decide whether they were the fresh work of some enterprißing spider, tempted out by a brief " spell o 1 sunshine," or merely the remnants of last autumn's spinning, unaccountably spared by the besom or the wind. It has been suggested that the thiok webs which are spread over the fields on & Bummer morning are there produced for the purpose of collecting the moisture that falls during the night. This theory ia sustained by the known fact that the Bpider is an extremely thirsty creature. Is tho spider, then, a disciple of hydropathy as weli as an experimenter in aeronauticß ? The poets have not usually condescended to take much notice of the spider, though mythology (which is a kind of anonymous pootry received from the ancients) relatea how a young lady of Lydia impiously invited Pallas to try a opinning race with her j and how, on being vanquished by the immortal spinster of Olympus, the poor foolish girl was about to hang herself in a rope of her own twisting, when lo ! ehe was changed into a spider, in which humble and despised shapo sh-j remains to thiß day. Gavin Douglas, the " Scottish Chaucer," in his description of a May morning, does not forget to mention that —

In corners and in clear fenestrea of glass Full busily Arachne weavand was To knit her nettes and her wobbeu slie, Therewith to catch tho little midge or ilie,

The poetic and nimble-tongued Meroutio tells ub that the waggon-spokes of fairy Mab's chariot are

Made of long spinners' legs ; The cover or the wings of grasshoppers, Tho truces of the very smallest spider's web, — Atlantic Monthly,