Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1922-04-09
Strong Spiders Webs.

THE strength of the spider and q
the materials which he employ.
is something almost incomprehensi-
BILE when the size of the insect an0
the thickness of his thread are taken
into account. Some recent experi-
mentS and observations reported by
a government naturalist on this sub
ject are quite surprising A single
thread of a web made by a spider
which weighed fifty-four milligrams
supported endwise a weight of four
grams, or seventy-four times the
weight of the spider When there
fore, spider spins a web to let him
self down from the ceiling or from
the branch of a tree. and we see him
descending without seeing his thread
at all, we may be perfectly sure that
he is not only in no danger of fall
ing, but that he could carry seventy
three other spiders down with him
on his invisible rope
knowing this fact with respect to
a single thread, we need not be sur
priSed that the threads of a web, ill.,
terwoven and reinforced one by an
other. have very considerable
strength and are able to hold bees
and wasps. themselves very powerful
in proportion to their size, and to
bend without breaking under
weight of dew or rain.
Not insects alone, it appears. may
! be held in a spiders web. An au-
thentic report presented to a scien-
tific society relates how a spider cap
tured and held a mouse in its web
The mouse, to be sure, was a very
little one; it was afterward found to
measure a little less than an inch
and a half from the tip of its nose 10
the root of its tail; but it was ap-
parently vigorous and lively mouse
for its size
Coming into workroom at about
10 O'Clock one morning. a gentleman
discovered the little mouse entangied
! in a spiders web which had been
spun from the edge of bench to the
floor. The animal had evidently got
partly through the web and then been
held, for his forefeet were on the
| floor, but he could not pull his hinder
parts through the web.
The observer, in the interest of
science. set about watching the SUBJ
sequent proceedings. The spider that
resided in the web was already en-
gagged in running up and down eX-
citedly and now and then viciously
bit or stung the tail Of the mouse.
The animal struggled, but failed to free
himself.
After a time the spider began to
operate its web in such a way as to
f.1a of
suspend him in the web. At O'Clock
in the afternoon the mouses feet no
longer touched the floor. In the early
f, evening he was nearly an inch in the air.
At 8 o'clock in the evening the
mouse showed signs of death. He
was, indeed, still alive, but made no
movement except when the spider
stung him. Next morning he was
quite dead and hung nearly three
inches above the floor.
The spiders effort in lifting and
singing the mouse was evidently not
!, to kill the mouse, but to free him
| from the net-that is, to bring his
weight to bear upon it and to stimu-
late him to struggle. The spider did
not want the mouse: he wanted him
out of his web.
Another observer reported TO the
same society that he had witnessed
| the capture of small fish by a large
1 black spider in the water of a ditch
The fish struggled vainly to get away
from the spider, but plainly could not
| have done so if the watcher. more
merciful than the other observer, had
| not interfered and separated the an
| tagonists. -.