The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1905-01-27
THE GOLDEN SPIDER.
HOW THE GlLOeD TYRANEJ GATHERS
IN THE GRASSHOPPeRS.

Its Prey With n LaRsO-One Species
That Makes Balloons, and Another
That Builds Diving Bells.
A gilded tyrant, with velvety black
markings, is the huge golden spider
sitting in her house woven of silken
meshes. Her weaving, too, is marvel
ously strong, and the six guy ropes
that support her swinging habitation
some five feet long And what may
Nine. Spider be watching for? All,
gay green grasshopper, that, with more
athletic action than wisdom, springs
right into the very midst of Nine.
Spiders net. And she had been on
the alert for just such a victim. The
web swings to and fro with such vio-
lence that one would expect 1t to be
torn to shreds. But, no; before the
stupid grasshopper can possibly kick
himself loose, and, Notwithstanding his
struggles have torn large rent in the
web, he finds himself incased in silk
en- shroud, deftly woven by his enemy,
and in this he swings helplessly. Then
Nine. Spider comes down her zigzag
stairway and sizes up her catch, may
be gives him little nipping bite and
then leaves him to his fate until such
time as she wishes to serve him up
for the family dinner.
There are many of these great golden
spiders in thickets. All of them look
sleek and we'll fed. There Is an Amer
lean spider which haunts evergreen
trees and catches its prey by means Of
a lasso. The web of this spider is tli
angular in FORM consisting of four
longitudinal lines and a large number
Of cross fibers connecting them. Two
corners of the triangle are attached to
twigs, but the other corner, which
terminates in single thread, is held
by the spider, perching on a neighbor-
ing twig. When a fly strikes the web
the spider loosens his hold, and the
elastic threads instantly entangle the
victim
If you anchor a pole in body of
water, leaving the pole above the sur
face, and put spider upon it, he will
exhibit a marvellous intelligence by his
plans of escape. At first he will spin
a web several inches long and hang to
one end, while he allows the other to
float off in the wind, in the hope that
it will strike some object. OF course
this plan proves a failure He waits
until the wind shifts perhaps and then
sends another silken bridge floating off
in another direction Another failure
is followed by several other similar at
tempts until all points of the compass
have been tried. But neither the re-
sources nor the reasoning powers Of the
spider are exhausted. He climbs to
the top Of the pole and energetically
goes to work to construct a silken bal
loon.
He has no hot air with which to in
fate it, but he has the power of max
ing 1t buoyant When he gets his bal
loon finished he does not go off upon
the mere supposition that it will carry
him, as men often do but he fastens
1t to a guy rope. He then gets into his
aerial vehicle while it is fast and tests
it to see whether it's dimensions are
capable Of bearing him away. He
sometimes finds that he has made it
too small, in which case he hauls 1t
down, takes it all apart and constructs
it on larger and better plan. A spider
has been seen to make three different
balloons before he became satisfied
with his experiment. Then he will get
in, snap his guy rope and sail away, to
land as gracefully and as supremely
independent of his surroundings as
could well be imagined
The diving bell is considered to be a
great invention, yet long before man
thought of his diving bell the water
Sspider had hers, in which she reared
her numerous family. There are sever
al remarkable things about this nest.
One of them is the manner in which it
is made
In that businesslike manner which
characterizes all spiders she boldly
plunges into the water and walks down
the stem of pond weed When she
has selected suitable position for her
silken palace she fiexes a number of
strong lines in all directions for anchor
age. Then in the midst of these she
constructs beautiful web, somewhat
in the shape of a thimble, but not
quite so large. 1t is full of water and
therefore not like diving bell. How
is the water to be got out and replaced
with air?
The true explanation is wonderful.
She carries the whole of the air re
quired from the surface. Her body
and legs are covered with grayish
hairs. She plunges quickly into the
water. The movement is so rapid that
the air has not time to escape from her
hairy coat, and she goes down sur
rounded by globules of air. When
across the threshold of her own home
she carefully dislodges this air by rub
bling herself with her legs. The lib
Grated bubbles Immediately arise to
the roof Of her house and there re-
main. In this way she at length fills
the whole bell and takes up her posi-
ton in it, always head downward.
Here she passes the winter, keeping
snug and quiet until the warm days
of spring invite her to the surface in
quest of flies and other small insects
Iippincotts Magazine.
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