Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1882-10-20

ber will reveal an innumerable multitude
of webs spread over the landscape, 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 orbweavers, who make
circular web the line-weavers, whose
web is labyrinthian the tube-weavers,
who hang their nests on walls or rocks or
branches of trees, and the tunnel-weav-
ers. who live in tunnels cut into the earth
and having automatic doors ingeniously
cOntrived. In the wanderers are includ-
ed the cetegrades, whose motions are
quick and vivacious the Iateri-grades,
who have queer sideways motion, and
the saltigrades, vino jump and dance and
vault. The dolomede spider is swim
mer, and lives on or under water. She
builds her nest on detached branch of q
detached branch of tree or bush, which
she makes into tent The argiopa fas-
ciapa, or banded spider is n silver yellow
and black color
"Spiders are not sociable creatures
They are generally, on the contrary, Of
solitary habits, and are mostly cannibals,
eating each other with great gusto. They
mate in the Spring and Autumn, and the
mating is often very trying and dan
gerous 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 courtships are scenes of
violence. and not of love and peace. The
lady looks with sublime contempt upon
the gentleman, and keeps him at n dis
tance. He can only approach her by
stratagem, and sometimes she nips off one
of his legs in her anger, and casts him
adrifs II cripple. | have seen poor fellows
who have lost four out Of their eight legs,
and still they were attracted to the oppo-
site sex like moths to II 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 MS they see the
light. There are several varieties, how
ever, who carry their eggs i'll n silk pouch
until they are Matched. The tubeweavers
sometimes care for their young until they
uit u'lt W S't hiOit, anu ilt'i IL piooti
OF about sixty in my yard until the re-
cent rains destroyed them.
Spiders have numerous enemies, and
much of their clever nest-building is de-
signed for protection against these in
roads. Toads and birds destroy them by
the thousands, and little parasite called
the ichneumon--a small iiy-lays it's eggs
in the cocoons Of the spider, and when
the larva appears it feeds first on the
spiders eggs and later on the young spi-
ders. Orbwcavers and lineweavers desert
their eggs when laid, and meet their Off
spring. where they live SO long, as
strangers. Another bitter enemy Of the
spider is the mud-daubing wasp, who has
n process that might be valuable to hu-
manity, ii it could be discovered, of keep
ing a supply OF fresh meat. When they
capture Il spider that is not needed for
present use, they sting it in such IL man
ner that she lives, but has no power to
move until such time as the captor is
ready to dcvour her. II is rather II sin
gular thing that the wasp III its babyhood
fee, on meat, but in its maturity eats
nothing but the nectar of flowers"