The record-union., 1899-08-17
ABOUT SPIDERS.
Interesting and Curious Facts
About Them.

|
About Them.
| While putting by the tops of a nest
! of weeds that fringes the fence of our
! back yard / discovered the den of
veritable monster the other day. L
was looking for tennis ball that had
darted into this garden jungle but a
moment before and now had mysteri-
ously disappeared. I was almost in
/ clined to believe that the monster had
/ swallowed it, it looked SO ferocious and
| the ball seemed lost SO completely. The
monster lurked in the middle of it's den,
! which was nothing less than great
| silken funnel with it's edges spreading
/ at least two feet under the tops of the
! weeds. At the center of this treach-
| erous structure was an ominous- look
! ing tunnel Of silk, which led toward the
| ground. An inch back of the entrance
| to the tunnel crouched the monSter-a
| great spider, whose fierce eyes could
! be seen plainly. Imagine the feelings
/ Of the unfortunate insect that should
| happen to get tangled in the snares
| of that silken tunnel and see the mon
| ster's cruel eyes glaring at it greedily!
| After all, the funnel-like structure
/ was only spiders web, but one of the
1 most deadly known to the spider fam
| lily. So closely were the countless
| threads composing the web woven that
| it looked like a soft gray carpet
smooth and shining-spread under the
| shade of the weed-tops. Could you
! have looked at this carpet through
! magnifying glass you would have seen
| that thousands of almost invisible
! threads f1uttered like delicate nap on
! the surface. Doubtless many a fly or
! bug or moth had drifted aimlessly into
! that dusky place under the Weed-tops
! and had settled on the carpet only to
! become entangled in the loose threads
| When such a thing happened instantly
| the funnel-shaped net began to tremble
and thus sent message to the monster
waiting in the tunnel. Then the mon
ster ran out, attacked the insect, tum-
| bled it in the web until it was all rolled
about with silk, like baby rolled up in
a blanket. Not waiting for the cap
tive to die, the spider tore a hole in the
insects body and sucked its life away.
When the insect was sucked dry the
monster cut it loose from the web and
let it drop to the ground. This left a
hole in the web, which the spider at
once repaired, retreating afterward to
the tunnel to wait for another victim
and another meal
The tunnel not only serves as nome
for the monster-which belongs to the
aga1enidae family-but it is open at
the lower end in order that the spider
may escape that way if necessary.
Look under the tops of any clump of
weeds these days and you will be pref
ty certain to find one of these funnel
webs or traps.
More artistic, though less practical,
webmakers belong to the eperidae fam
lily of spiders. They are called the
"orb weavers' and make the beautiful
and slender nets that seem to come
overnight and are found spread outside
the window in the morning, or among
the branches of the willows, or even on
the tops of the clover fields.
The spider selects a place frequented
by flies. then it prepares the main sup
ports or outlines of its web. These sup
ports are made of heavy cords of silk,
which comes from a sac in the spiders
abdomen. When the silk leaves the alb
domen it is in the form of a LIQUID,
but it instantly hardens in the air. 1t
comes through many small tubes-some
spiders having several hundred-each
one of which makes thread which is
invisible to the naked eye. The tubes
are collected in groups of from 100 to
200. Each group is called a. spinneret.
There are two or three pairs of spin
nerets on each webmaking spider. The
spider may use one or more SpinneretS,
according to the sized thread it wishes
to make. For the supporting threads it
usually combines all the threads into
one strong and coarse strand of silk.
Next. the cross lines-lil1e the spokes of
a wheel-are made. These are more
slender than the supporting lines.
) When this unelastic skeleton of the
web is completed the spider begins at
the outside of the structure. and walk
ing round and round, places the spiral
line. which is soft elastic and stucky
silk. that clings to nearly everything
{ that touches it.
All of this is easy to tell, but you
should watch a spider at work to aq-
preciate its skill and patience When
it lays it's supporting lines it often
spins two or three side by side and
| fastens them together to give more
strength to the structure. Then 1T
seiZes the lines in it's claws and pulls
on them until they are tight, aftefward
! fastening them in place by smearing
! with silk the wood to which they are
attached. AS each crossline is spun it
| is carefully tightened, then spiral lines
are laid with beautiful regularity. OFT
times a spider has to wait for a fair
wind to enable it to string its first sup
porting line. In such q case the branch
to which it wishes to attach its sup
porting line is several feet away. SO
the spider let's one of its delicate
threads float out on the breeze, pay
ing out inch after inch of 1T till the
wind tosses the sticky silk against the
coveted branch. At once the spider
climbs to the branch on the new silky
pathway, trailing after it the first
heavy strand of the support. Ii the
spider wishes to carry thread TO q
branch below it, it attaches the thread
to the upper branch and drops to the
lower, hanging by its own thread,
which it pays out as it drops. A spider
often uses this to escape from high
places. One summer there was a spider