Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-05-06

it to dip the claws in their poison bags or
glands, knowing that single scratch in
| fiicted on the body of an adversary by a
poison-tipped weapon will eventually
prove fatal?
/ The spider is surely the very Ishmael
| OF insects; from the time in early spring
when, bursting the yellow bag or cocoon
IN which the parent spider had deposited
| her eggs, the young ones take their soli-
tary way through life, with their hands,
as 1t were, against every one, and every
ones hand against them. Even their
matrimonial alliances are formed with
unusual precautions, not altogether un-
necessary when the bride, the larger of
the two, not unfrequently finishes the
honeymoon by devouring her luckless
husband
The circular web is perhaps better
adapted to the tly-catching business than
any other, as the proprietors drive a
roaring trade, and soon wax fat, espe-
cially after the apparently painful proc
ess of casting the skin has been success
fully accomplished, process that leaves
them for two or three days very weak,
and devoid of their usual animation.
After peeling off the skin the legs are
clear and almost transparent, not I'M
| like a piece of amber
| Toward evening the garden spider
leaves her lair and takes up her station
| in the middle Of the web, with her feet
| resting on the radiating threads, ready
on the slightest vibration to pounce upon
her prey. Evening, too, is the time
usually selected for gathering up her
broken strands; though Kirby and
| Spence, in their admirable Introduction
to Entomology" evidently go too far
when they assert that the concentric cir
cles of the geometric nets are all renewed
every twenty-four hours; the patchy ap-
pearance Of the structure after being
some time in use being in strong con-
trast to its beautiful regularity when first
constructed, which a total renewal would
naturally restore.
The spider is never, apparently, off
her guard, and is always either fishing
or mending the net" the proverb about
catching a weasel asleep being equally
applicable to this wide-awake, feather
less fy-catcher. She is not bad ba-
rometer either, for when rain is threat
ened- especially those. warm, summer
| showers that fill the earth with fragrance
and set the blackbird's rich contralto
caroling through the air-this spider
may be seen busily engaged arranging
her "parlor" for her welcome guests,
the flies, whom she invites to "walk in,''
knowing that the coming rain will drive
them for shelter to the nearest bush or
building
In striking contrast to the jolly open
air life of the garden spider is the dismal
existence that can hardly be called life
passed by many common house spiders
| Constructing web of strong, CLOTH like
texture, slung like hammock, in some
! out-of- the-way corner, her life is spent in
state of chronic semidestitution, wait
ing for the infatuated fly that may acct
denta1y drop in. Her powers of en-
durance must be something wonderful.
When hunger can be borne no longer
this spider-a determined cannibal when
nothing better can be had-will start On
! hunting expedition after other spiders
of smaller kind, exercising in the ne
| farious quest good deal of cunning.
The house spider passes the winter in
both the egg and perfect form. The
writer on the 10th of February reused a
large, torpid house spider from it's sleep,
which slowly and with much difficulty
made it's way up the wall to crevice in
the ceiling, evidently thinking with the
sluggard: You have walked me too
soon; must slumber again. On the
same date, Feb. 10-a cold, frosty day
a cocoon that was observed to be turning
and found to be full Of perfectly formed
young spiders, nearly black. Some of
them began to move, and one fell out Of the
nest on to some paper beneath, when, on
moving the paper, the young straggler was
found hanging to it, four or five inches
below, proving that as soon as spiders
are Matched they have the power of at
taching themselves to any object they
touch, by line of their own making
strong enough to bear them. They evi
IDENTIFY knew it was too early to separate.
for, on being left to themselves, they
were soon after found huddled together
in a round heap, each in the shape the
old ones assume when Stimulating death.
One of the prettiest, as it is certainly
one of the most entertaining, of our ma
tive spiders is a small jumping species,
called by naturalists tSalt5cus sce1a5cus,
which almost any sunny day in summer
may be seen lodging bout on the win
dow-siu to get within leaping distance
of some unconscious fly, on which it
will spring like diminutive tiger, with
fatal precision. Beautifully marked
with black and white or black and
brown stripes, this active little hunter
manages to pick up living without the
trouble of manufacturing a web. The
extraordinary maneuvers practiced by it
arp extremely amuSinp and To any