The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1901-12-12
SOME USEFUL SPIDERS
BY S. FRANK AARON

their true character, when we shall
realize that everything has its place
in the great scheme, and when this
understanding will fully influence our
attitude toward creatures great Oh
small, to us ill-favored or beautiful,
beneficial or injurious. There is row
much ignorance, often Indifferent to
truth, still oftener influenced by mere
sentiment, concerning those creatures
that have, often unaccountably. be-
come to us loathsOme and disgusting.
Spiders for example, as with snakes
and lizards, as we'll as many insects
are objects of almost universal anti
pathy. They are popularity believed
to be harmful, poisonous, worse than
useless, fit only to be Stunned, feared,
or trodden on. Few. even of the most
sensible people, take any interest in
spiders except to inquire as to their
yenomuus qualities.
1t must be admitted, of course, that
their appearance is not in their favor.
Few animated objects are more re-
pulSive to the sight than the SO-called
tarantula of the tropics, huge men,
Der of the spider family, and when to
its ugliness is added its supposed pois-
onous character, it becomes a proper
object of aversion. The great hairy
legged spiders of temperate clines are
most unsightly, and the popular
notion endows them with venomouS
power, whether they deserve it or not.
Even their handiwork, their delicate
and truly wonderful webs of gossamer,
are unnoticed except to be trodden
down on the lawn, or brushed from
the walls by the broom.
But it can be readily proved that
spiders are rarely, if ever, poisonous
or even harmful, that certain species
are really useful and beneficial, and
that they all play an important part
in the great scheme of nature. Their
chief service to man lies in their de-
struction of noxious insects. ssTo be
sure" says the reader, ''spiders kill
flies. and flies are nuisance - True.
and flies are not only nuisance; they
are carriers of disease, spreaders of
pollution. Spiders also kill mosquitoes,
moths and other flying and crawling
pests that stray into their webs.
The grassybank spider, Agalena
naevia, whose dew-spangled web is
often seen on the lawn in the early
summer morning, preys upon many
kinds of noxiOus insects. A larger
species of Agalena, common in woods
and about stone piles and fences,
makes larger and stronger webs, in
which bigger insects, such as locusts,
graSshoppers, and Junebugs, are often.
trapped. The webs of all the Agale-
mas lead down into dark and secret
tunnels where the spider retreats
when danger threatens. Even the
SudGen visit of wasp or bumble-bee
will sometimes drive the owner of the
web into this hiding place.
The jumping spiders (Attus) are
also active fiy-catchers and deStroyers
of noxious insects. They build no
web except very small receptacle in
which to hide their eggs and to pro-
tect their young when Matched. They
are the tigers of the insect world,
springing upon their prey with true
feline energy. The orb-weavers,
Eperia, are equally useful to man. and
their webs reach the highest develop
ment of mechanical skill.
1t is worthy of note that insects in
furious to man form the chief prey of
the orb-weaving and grassy-bank
spiders, as well as of the jumping Spe-
cies. 1t is true that beneficial in
sects, such as ichneumon flies and pre-
daceous beetles, may stray into their
nests, but the noxious flies, the cater
pillars, grasshoppers and leaf-eating
beetles are their far more numerous
victims.
But the most useful OF all our
spiders are those which prey upon the
caterpillars that infest our shade and
fruit trees and destroy their foliage.
Attached to the branches of trees,
particularly to the cherry, apple,
maple, elm, ash and linden, may often
be seen large, unsightly webs or nests,
sometimes covering good-sized
branch. These nests are constructed
by the larvae of several kinds of web
worms, and each nest is the home of
colony of the worms, hiding there by
day, and crawling forth at right to
devour the surrounding leaves. A
single web often contains hundreds of
these worms, and were it not for a
few spiders that also inhabit the nest
and suck the life-blood of the cater
pillars, the latter would undoubtedly
increase in such numbers as to strip