The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-10-27
About Spl6srs.

4
The Rev. Henry C. MeCook, of Phila.
delphia, who is an interested observer oil
spiders. says, as reported in the Phila.
delphia Press:
1.-THE destruction of insects by spiders
is enormous. Ihave counted 250 insects,
small and great, hanging entangled in
one orb-web. In one net in Paramount
Park I counted thirty-eight mosquitoes;
in another, hung under bridge at 40
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 and 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 dewy morning in
September will reveal an innumerable
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
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-
finno nd wi oso ho lok ax
grades, who have queer sideways mo-
ton. and the saltigrades, who jump and
dance and vault. The dolomede spider
is swimmer, and lives on or under
water. She builds her nest of detached
branch of a tree or bush, which she rAlkes
into tent. The argiopa fasciapa, or
banded spider, is 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
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 we'll 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
distance. He can only approach her by
strategem, and sometimes she nips OF
one of his legs in her anger, and casts
him adrift cripple. 1 have seen poor
fol yh<>h ox 1,f 81 ,n.
eight legs, and still they were attracted
to the opposite sex like moths to 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
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 them
by the thousand, little parasite called
the ichneumon-asmall fiy-lays its eggs
in the cocoons of the spider. and when
the larva appears it feeds first upon the
SPIDERS eggs and later on the young
spiders. Orbweavers and lineweavers |
desert their eggs when laid, and meet
their offspring, where they live so long,
as strangers. Another bitter enemy of |
the spider is the undertaking wasp, who
has process that might be valuable to
if it could be discovered, of
keeping supply of fresh meat. When
they capture spider that is not needed
for present use, they sting it in such
that she lives, but has no power
to move until such time as the captor is
ready to devour her. 1t is rather a sin
gular thing that the wasp in its baby
hood feeds on meat, but in its maturity |
eats nothing but the nectar of flowers"