The record-union., 1893-01-23
EIGHT-LEGGED FRIENDS.
Observation Of Two Spiders Through
out a Whole Summer.
The Reasons Why Spiders Have to Be
Eating Something All the Time
Wasps and Other Insects.

AoIS O1 lHe cOulmOu EnBllSn ReOLn0LTlcal
spider. By the pure chance of circum
stance two ladies of that intelligent and
interesting species were kind enough to
select for their temporary residence a
large pane of glass just outside my draw
ing-room window. Now it so happened
that tlis particular pane was constructed
not to open, being, in fact, part of big
bow-window, the alternate sashes of
which were alone intended for ventila
ton. Hence it came to pass that by dill
gent care l was enabled to preserve my
two eight-legged acquaintance from the
devouring broom of the British house,
maid, and to keep them constantly un-
der observation at all times and seasons
during whole summer.
They were curious and uninvitiug
pets, | am bound to admit, those great
iuicy-looking creatures. Nobody would
say that any form of spider is precisely
what our Italian friends prettily describe
in their liquid way as sampatico. At
times, indeed, the conduct of Lucy and
Eliza-those were the names we had
given them-was so peculiarly horrible
and blood-curdling in its atrocity that
even |, their best friend, who had so
often interceded for their lives and saved
housemaid-even l myself l say, more
than once debated in my own mind
whether | was justified i'll letting them
go on any longer in their career OF crime
unchecked, or whether l ought not rather
to rush out at once, avenging rag in
hand, and sweep them at one fell swoop
from the surface of a world they dis
graced with their unbribled wickedness.
Eliza, in particular, | am constrained to
allow q nf viz
sort Of undevelOped arachnid Borgia,
quick to slay and relentless in pursuit;
mass OF elght-legged sins, stained with
the gore Of ten thousand struggling VIC
TINS, and absolutely without single re-
deeming point in her hateful character
The lines were in both cases stretched
between white rosebush that climbed
up one side Of the window, and purple
clematis that occupied and draped the
opposite mullion. But Lucy and Eliza
didn't live in the webs-those were only
their snares and traps for prey; each of
them had in addition a private home or
department of her own under shelter of
rose leaf at some distance from the
treacherous geometrical structure. The
house itself consisted merely of a silken
cell, built out from the rose leaf, and con-
nected with the snare by single stout
cord of very solid construction. On this
cord the spider kept one foot-I had al
most said one hand-constantly fixed.
She poised it lightly by her claws, and
whenever an insect got entangled in the
web, subtitle electric message, so to
speak, seemed to run along the line to
the ever-watchful carnivore. In one
short second Lucy or Eliza, as the case
might be, had darted out upon her
quarry, and was tackling it might and
main, according to the particular way its
size and strength rendered then and
there advisable.
The cross-pieces, we observed from the
very beginning, were invariably covered
by little sparkling drops of something
wet and beadlike, which at first in our
ignorance we took for dew. But we soon
found out that these pearly drops on the
web were not dew at all, but a sticky sub
stance, akin of that OF the web, secreted
by the animals themselves from their
own bodies. We also quickly discovered
that the viscid liquid in question was of
the utter importance to the spiders in Sc
curing their prey, and that unfortunate
insects were not merely entangled but
likewise gummed down or glued by it,
like birds in bird-lime or flies in treacle
So necessary is the sticky stuff, indeed,
to the success OF the trap. that Lucy and
Eliza used to renew the entire set of
cross-pieces in the web every morning,
and thus insure from day to day per-
u.
SO far as / could see, they only renewed
the rays and the foundation threads un-
der stress of necessity, when the snare
had been so greatly injued by large in
sects struggling in it, or by the wind or
the gardener, as to render repairs abso-
lutely unavoidable.
L was convinced after many observa-
tions that it is by touch alone the spider
recognizes the presence of prey in it's
web, and that it hardly derives any indi-
cations worth speaking of from its nu-
merous little eyes, at least as regards the
arrival of booty.
Supposing the booty in hand was tiny
fly, then Lucy or Eliza would Jump upon
1t at once with that strange access of ap-
parently personal animosity which seems
in some mysterious way a characteristic
of all hunting carnivorous ANIMALS. She
would then carelessly wind thread or
two about 1t, in perfunctory way, bury
her jaws in its body, and in less than
half minute suck out its juice to the last
drop, leaving the empty shell unburt,
like a dry skeleton or the slough of a
dragon fly larva. But when wasps or
other large and dangerous insects got en-
tangled in the webs, the hunters pro-
ceeded with far greater caution. Lucy,
indeed, who was decided coward, would
stand and look anxiously at the doubtful
intruder for several seconds, feeling the
web with her claws, and running up and
down in the most undecided manner, as if
in doubt whether or not to tackle the
uncertain intruder. But Eliza, whose
spirits always rose like Nelson's before
the face of danger, and whose motto
seemed to be-"De Paudace, de Pau
dace, ct tourjours de Paudace," would
rush at the huge foe in a perfect transport
of wild fury, and GO to work at once to
inclose him in her tolls of triple silken
cables. in less than half minute the
astonished wasp, accustomed rather to act
on the offensive than the defensive,
found himself helplessly inclosed in a
perfect coil of tangled silk, which con-
lined him from head TO sting without the
possibility of movement in any direction.
The whole time this had been going on
the victim, struggling and writhing, had
been pushing out its sting and doing the
very best it knew TO deal the willy Eliza
poisoned death blow. Sometimes,
after the wasp was secured, Eliza even
took the trouble TO saw off the wings so
as to prevent further struggling and con-
sequent damage to the precious web
zone insect there was, however, before
which Eliza herself, hardened wretch as
she seemed, used to cover and shiyer:
and that was the black bumblebee, the
largest and most powerful of the British
Zee kind. When one of these dangerous
monsters, burly, buzzing bourgeois, got
entangled in her web, Eliza, shaking in
her shoes, would retire in high dudgeon
TO her inmost bower, and there would sit
and sulk, in visible bad temper, till the
clumsy big thing, after many futile eff
forts, had torn its way by main force out
of the coils that surrounded it. Hum
ming-bird hawk-moths, on the other
hand, though so big and quick, she
would kill Immediately.
In the end, Eliza laid large number
OF eggs in silken cocoon, in shape OF
balloon, and secreted, like the web, by
her invaluable spinnarets. Indeed, the
real reason-l won't say exeuse-for the