Morris tribune., 1883-04-18
SPIDERS.
Interesting Facts about These. Insects.


From the Philadelphia Press.l
The destruction of insects by spiders
is enormous. / have counted 250 in
sects, small and great, hanging en-
tangled in one orb web. In one net in
Fairmount Park counted thirty eight
mosquitoes; in another, hung under q
bridge in Asbury Park, and out OF
reach, there must have been two or
three times that 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 micro
scopic insects like gnats, and devour
myriads. A glance at the fields, bushes
and trees on a dewy morning in Septem-
| ber will reveal an innumerable multi
tude of webs spread over the landscape,
all occupied by spiders of various ages,
sizes and families, and all busy destroy
ing 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 ine-weavers,
whose web is labyrinthian; the tube
weavers, who hang their nets on walls
or rocks or branches of trees, and the
tunnel-weavers, who live in tunnels cut
into the earth and having automatic
doors ingeniously contriyed. In the
wanderers are included the cetegrades,
whose motions are quick and vivacious;
the laterigrades, who have aqueer side
ways motion, and the saltigrades, who
Jump and dance and vault. The dolo-
mede spider is a swimmer, and lives on
or under water. She builds her nest on
the detached branch of tree or bush,
which she makes into tent. The ar
giopa 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 canni-
balls, eating each other with great gusto.
They mate in the spring and autumn,
and the mating is often trying and
dangerous one. 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 distance. He can only ap-
proach her by stratagem, and some
times she nips off one of his legs in her
anger and casts him adrift . cripple.
have seen poor fellows who have lost
four out of their legs, and still they
were attracted to the opposite sex like
moths to cradle. 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 100 to each nest, and the
little ones are thrown upon the world
almost as soon as they see light. There
are several varieties who carry their
eggs In silk pouch until they are
hatched. The tube weavers sometimes
care for their young until they are able
to get about, and I had brood of about
sixty in my yard until the rains de-
stroyed 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 ichnumen-a small fy-lays
it's eggs in the cocoons of the spider,
md when the larva appears it feeds first
IN the eggs and later on the young
spiders. Orb weavers and line weav-
srs desert their eggs when laid, and
meet their offspring, where they live so
ong, as strangers. Another bitter
enemy of the spider is the mud daub-
ng wasp, which has process that
night be valuable to humanity, if it /
could be discovered, of keeping sup
oly of fresh meat. When they capture ]
spider that is not needed for present
lse they sting it in such manner that '
lives, but has no power to move until