The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-01-28
cODwEBs Ann FLIES.

There arc no more intimate acluaintances OF
man thaa spiders and 1lies. We therefore e.
teem u hot ~ all improper that We should con-
slider The constitution, habits and sastes Oh
tbs - domeetta insects: for they are certainty
very perssyerink l.. their observation ana IN
sp~ction Of ours. We give place, for this rea-
son. 10 the following pleasant article upon
these friends of ours from Caambers' Journal.
and s,onmead il TO our readers both yoang and
old ~ con tanning matter for their edificason
as " III ~ amusement:
.r, an ordinary man without diseased
nerves, spider Is -Justas spider not peculiar
" enchanting to the sight, aud d.s..greeabie
enough 10 the touch when running over the
skin with those eight long hairy legs Of his.
subtle matte OF slatierni,ness, and significant Of
mistress As careless as her maids. when
found - TIE house passages or Room orners,
and y Ia = bad oaomssti, character genera ~,
BECAUSE Of his art and tact of Concentrating;
bu, win no more tcrr,ble associations than
these. . nd OF decidedly feeble powers of agrees
eion. To n ny. gLa', small beetle, tGv
moth--nny. in some Instances. even to bees and
wasps, and in the far Oft tropics, TO hnmm,ng-
birds, and the like spider Is an established
murderer the licensed Jack katch, the nm :
punished giant aud universal Bogie of fiy-na-
ture. His hooks aud traps, his springs and
claws, his poison bags and fangs, his cruel
cords, has nets, his biind-alleys, his funnel,
shaped prisons, his patterned mazes, with the
wicked bi I'd time on the walks, his hideous Jaws
and bloaied frame. are all OF horrid power and
stil. more korrid uses.
First, there IS the web. composed of threads
of two quail lies, and OF a duplex purpose. The
one is u simple cordage made of many strands;
the other, = rope made also of many strands.
but studded with drops of viscid glue. II is
this last kind alone which has the power OF
binding any unfortunate creature that may
come ia the way. A spirited fly or an energet-
ic beetle would snap the simple cordage as
easily is Samson burst the bonds of the Phil
hut hon ~ In h.tC ka
been wound round and round hin, the poor
insect is As helpless As any Egyptian NANNY
in his papyrus casiugs. In the webs OF the
YeometriC or garden. pitiers, the mOoring- ca
bies and radii are made OF the simple threads
the concentric or spiral circles, of the viscid
and these alone detaiu the vagrant flies that
acciden tally touch the net. The weaving house
spiders have no cIalnmy threads, but en- iangle
their prey by the gauzy fineness Of the web,
into which the claws and feet of the house-Ay
catch, and cannot be Withdrawn. SWathed
and bound, glued to the strands, en- tangled
in n net, and utterly helpless, the doomed fly
next behOids 4 terrible creature advancing
swiftly towards him protruding from his head
are Two huge stIH iaNp-knires, drawn from
their cases. standing erect and ready TO strike.
These clasp knives. or, more properly, tangs,
are hollow, and cut OF! at the end, 10 AFFORD
free pa sage To the poisonous acid secreted ia
them, Their stroke IL deadly but H. by some
rare chance, they failed TO reach i Vital part,
the poison would perfect the work The spi
der PUSHES ferOciously ON his victim, iangs or
Cla> D. Knives exte1ue0, ana without more d0O.
piunge> them with downward stroke into
the head or breast, in true meludramatic style,
then pours out his poison, aud All is done.
That this poison is an acid, is proved by the
reidening of iitmus- paper so tar AS the per-
forations extend that it Is deadly, we have
only 10 watch the next murder that takes place
in the webs floating through the sweet brier-
bushes near the gaFden-chaIr. Spiders do not
use these weapons against their victims or
their prey only, brt even against each either,
when moved by either rage or ea!ousy. Leu
wenhoeck watched Nv iarge fellows lighting
desperately one day they stabbed aud struck
till one fell dead, literally .bathrd in blood
from his many Wounds-wet As If water had
been poured over hiin. The naturalist was
not mi tia'ed into the cause OF the Y uarrei; but
it WAS a deadly one, and terribly suggestive OF
human tarai els.
The claws Of the spider are combed and
horney, serrited like the teeth OF Il comb and
the legs are covered with stiff spInes, which. II
a tslse step should be made, catch in the
threads, and preyent a heavy fall. With these
combrd claws and spin Y legs, the spider guides
the threads vi his wsb separating them Into
two ropes, If he would have them separated
int Two or keeping them all glued together
into one, II that should be his object for the
m oment. or spinnere.s, there are three pair
sol close tos.sher each looking. under the mi
croscoi,a, not unlike the head oi Il barrel cover
ed with black hairs, and beset with IL circis, OF
stiff whitish hiistles. The whole fiat surface
OF this barrel head within the circle is covered
with very ninu te huruy tubes. which TIE
on irts OF tbs, silk ducts. These vary much in
individuals. Ia the gardens picer (spetra, )tboNe
one thousand OF such duets were counted ina
eiatioao, only three hundred, bat the grea tesi
diversity Is among those same geometrIc or
garden spiders, OF whose family here
many members more or less unlike. Each
thread is Composed of as many slraEds
there are spinnerets devoted to that partIcu lar
kind of thread fol, we have spen there
varieties OF thread, and varieties OF spin erets
are Il DoNsriort matters of course. When the
thread first issues from the SPIDER il is like Il
OF hi t.,...
which hardens AS il is ups; but the gutiuuu>
threads, with those little pearly drops of Wis
cid glue on them. never harden. They spoil,
however, sooner Than the others, and must Of
ten be renewed. They are very numerous
s., 800 having been counted in The net OF gar
n-spider. oi average siZe-i2o,.Ju IN a large net
of from fourteen to sixteen inches in diameter.
Ie. such net can be made in three-q uarters OF
an hour, while the accidents TO be repaired and
decayed strand TO be renewed are endless. One
species tC2sbtoHa dtrox) IS An Immensely good
housewife in this way. and is perpetualiy re-
newIng part OF her habitation and OntWorks.
She catches her prey, not from any yiscidity
or cumming iii her threads, but, like the
house-spder, by the extreme fineness of her
net, which entOgles the legs and feet of the
curious creatures whs come prov ling too near
her domain. But though she has no glue |
thread, like SO many Others she has two kinds |
OF thread AS we'll as the rest: one, the ordinary |
spiders thread the other, Il pale blue zigzag |
thread, complicated structure, which is at |
tached to the rest in loops or fasciculi extreme
ly fatal 10 flies by entangiing with their exter
nal inequalities.
. As spiders make various kinds of webs, SO |
do they live in all sorts of houses; indeed. |
there is much difference between these rs
there is between a Gothic castle and an Italian |
villa, between Il Swiss chatet and Wigwam III |
TERRA del Fuego. Some, the LdiebTicolp, who |
hide in holes and assures, furnish their sub |
terraEenn burrows with a silken lining, manu- |
featuring also q close-fittihg door OF cemented |
earth which they line with the same silken IA |
pestry as that hung round the walls, and |
which, falling down by its own weight, can |
be kept close shut by means of strong stays |
and ropes. In the Brazilian forests may be |
found pretty little spider belonging TO this |
group 4Mysaie esnetaria.) which makes a case |
for itself, which it suspends in the middle of |
its web, hanging to IL the most admirable |
spring door imaginable. Others of the same |
species are enormous fellows one, the Mygale |
aricMtarsG, at least two inches long, and with |
feet that measure u full foot from point to |
point Of the standing place. This enormous |
creature IL said, by some naturaiists, to eat |
humming- birds, but others again assert thatIt |
does not do so, and that when one has been |
placed in it's hole, IL has run away ana hidden !
itself. Then there are the fubieosd who live At /
the bottom Of silken bes, whence they spy |
out tor their prey. AS 1T passes humming near |
the cruel cave. There are the cef,e0ta, who /
dwell in small cells. hermit like; the eursoyes,
who run 10 catch their prey, like the wolf
spider the tyeosus, who hides under clodS of |
earth, then darts with the ferocity and |
sWifiness Of its tour-foote namesake, and de-
YOURS its victim with disgusting avidity; there
are the saifdtorss. who spring TO seize their
prey ana the iafertsrdd1, who ran or walk
eidewayso or ackwards--any thing but $ traight-
1orwardly-after theirs, occasionally throwing
out long threads Ia "trip up the unwxry. There
are the httteta, who spread long floating siiken
tnreads about tie places where they prowI:
the iaptfei0, who spin thick webs like ham
mock -cioths: the ostssel1, who weave web, OF
regular open texture, like the garden spiders |