Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1901-11-06
A SPIDERS GENIUS.
e Feat in Engineering That Suggests q
True InteIIecS

e Feat in Engineering That Suggests q
True Inteilecf.
have considerable respect for the
female spider, Notwithstanding the
fact that she does not treat the male
very considerably. | had an oppor-
tunity last summer to watch a large
ere that had web in the top OF a
decaying peach tree with SO few leaves
that it Was in plain view. I caught
sight OF her first when watching some
birds with my glass. She seemed to
be climbing from the top of the tree
on nothing to telephone wire soEe
IL feet away anu somewhat higher
than her web. When she reached the
wire she went around it and then
Lack. In studying the situation l
found the web was so located that it
required cable to hold it up, and
the spider had in some way got one
over -tha-uii ina-an-6--------,'
BE was, of course, a slender silken
thread which evidently she had thrown
out, and on account of it's lightnes3
it had foatcd to the right place and
become attached there by its own gin
tinous properties. 1t seems remark
able that it should have adhered to
the wire firmly enough 10 allow so
large an insect to climb over it, which
she did every day as long as watched
her, evidently to mend or strengthen
it. The spider must have brains in
which the ability to construct its web
and adapt it to conditions is highly
developed. In an article in Chambers
Journal the following account of how
the spider forms its silken threads
is given:
Une Of the most interesting feat
ures in the economy of spiders is their
power of emilCing slender threads OF
& silk like substance called gossamer.
with which most Of them construct
mesh like nets, and few long, dang
ling cables, by which they are buoyed
through the air with nearly as much
facility as though they had been fur
nished with wings. The apparatus
provided by nature for celebrating
and emitting this gossamer is beau
tiful piece of mechanism. Within the
animal there are several little bags
OF vesicles of a gummy matter; and
these vesicles are connected with d
circular orifice at the abdomen. With
in this orifce are FIVE little teats or
spinnerets, through which the gossa-
mer is drawn. 1t must not be con-
cluded, however, that there is only
one film Of gossamer produced by each
spinneret; the fact is, these teats are
studded with thousands of minute
tubes too small for the naked eye to
perceive, and each of these emits
thread of inconceivable ineness. These
minute tubes are known as spinerules.
and the films which proceed from
them unite like so many strands of
rope to form the thread of gossamer
by which spider suspends itself. The
finest thread which human mechanism
can produce is like ships cable COM
pared with the delicate films which
flow from the spinnerules Of the larg--
est spider. The films are all distinct
ly separate on coming from the spin
reret, but unite, not by any twisting
process, but merely by their own glu-
tinous or gummy nature. Thus the
spinning apparatus of the disdained
spider when viewed by the eye Of SCI
ence becomes one OF the most Won
Gerful pieces of animated mechanism
l.nown 10 man. The animal has great
command over this apparatus, and
can apply it at will as long as the re-
ceptacles within are replenished with
the gummy fluid, but as soon as this
gum is exhausted all it's efforts to
spin are fruitless, and it must wait
till nature by her inscrutable chemis-
try, has secreted it from the food
which is devoured DIR. NJ. L. Hol-
brook, in the chronological Journal.