The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-10-28

The Rev. Henry c. McCook of Phila-
1elphia, who is an interested observer of
spiders, says, as reported in the Phila-
delphia Press:
The destruction of insects by spiders
is enormous. Ihave counted $50 insects,
small and great. hanging entangled in |
one Orb-web. In one net in Farm cunt
Park | counted thirty-eight mosquitoes; |
in another, hung under bridge at AS
bury Park, and out of reach, there must
have been two or three times as many. |
Green-head flies by the legion have been
seen in the webs that fairly enlace the
lighthouses at Atlantic City ard Cape
May The very small spiders prey upon
microscopic insects like gnats, and de-
your myriads. A glance at the fields,
bushes, and trees on a dewy morning in
| September will reveal an inrumerable
multitude of webs spread over the land
scape, all occupied by spiders of various
ages, sizes and families, and all busy
destroying the insect pests of man.
There are several species of spiders,
divided into two classes, the sedentary
and the wandering spiders. To the first
class belong the orb-weaVers, who make
q circular web; the line weaverS, whose
web is labrinthian; the tube-weavers.
who hang their nests on walls and rocks
or branches of trees, and the tunnel
weavers, who live in tunnels cut in the
earth and having automatic doors in
geniously contrived. In the wanderers
are included the cetegrades, whose mo-
tions are quick and vivacious; the lateri-
grades, who have queer sideways mo-
ton, and the saltigrades, who jump and
dance and vault. The dolomede spider
is a swimmer, and lives on or under
water. She builds her nest of a detached
branch of a tree or bush, which she makes
into tent. The argiopa fasciapa, or
banded spider, is a silver yellow and
black color.
Spiders are not sociable creatures.
They are generally, on the contrary. of
solitary habits, and are mostly canubals,
eating each other with great gustO.
! They mate in the spring and autumn,
and the mating is often very trying and
dangerous time. They reverse the order
of nature in one respect, for the males
are infinitely inferior in every respect to
the females, and the latter are well aware
of the fact. Their courtshpS are scenes
of violence, and not of love and peace.
The lady looks with sublime contempt
upon the gentleman, and keeps him at a
distance. He can only approach her by
Strategem, and sometimes she nips off
one of his legs in her anger and casts
him adrift a cripple. | have seen poor
fellows who have lost four out of their
eight legs, and still they were attracted
to the opposite sex like moths to a candle.
A spider will never eat her own young,
but the males will destroy them when
they can. The mother either goes away
or dies soon after the Matching of her
eggs, which number about one hundred
, to each nest, and the little ones are
: thrown upon the world almost as soon as
they see light. There are several vari-
cites, however, who carry their eggs in a
I silk pouch until they are Matched. The
, tube-weavers sometimes care for their
young until they are able to get about,
and had a brood of about sixty in my
! yard until the recent rains destroyed
! them.
Spiders have numerous enemies, and
much of their clever nest-building is
designed for protection against these in
!. roads. Toads and birds destroy then
\ by the thousand, little parasite callet
. the ichneumon-as small tiy-lays its egg,
{ in the cocoons of the spider, and when
the larya appears it feeds first upon the
SPIDERS eggs and later on the young
;. spiders. Orbweavers and lineweaver,
a desert their eggs when laid and meet
;. their offspring, where they live so long
l as strangers. Another bitter enemy Of
the spider is the undertaking wasp, who
;, has process that might be valuable tC
u humanity, if it could be discovered, o
! keeping a supply of fresh meat. Wher
" they capture spider that is not needeC
for present use, they sting it in such =;
manner that she lives, but has no power
to move until such time as the captor i.
ready to devour her. 1t is rather sin
$ gular thing that the wasp in its baby
Il hood feeds on meat, but in its maturity
u eats nothing but the nectar of flowers. ;