San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-04
A Native of New Guinea, Who,
by Placing a Bamboo Frame in
the Ground, Tricked Spider Into
Weaving a Perfectly Good Water.
proof Fishnet for Him.
r r G. WELLS once said that if man
n ever lost his mastery of the earth
= - tbo novt raco IN donoin a te would

u. WELLS once SAID tnat III man
RI ever lost his mastery of the earth
the next race to dominate would
be spiders! And there may be some sci
entific basis for this extraordinary idea.
because of all the creatures on earth the
spider is supreme in cunning, ruthless
ferocity, inventiveness and courage.
II may even be that the dread of spid-
ers which in most people is only less than
that for snakes, is the "reflex" of an in
stinctive fear that they might master us,
which is inherited from the very begin
ming of our evolution from lower forms
of animal life For there is no real rea-
son why people should fear and abhor
spiders They do not attack human beings
except in self-defense. Only very few
of them are dangerously poisonous. Yet
there is always something about spider
that is uncanny and fascinating.
Why this should be is question. There
have been scientists who explain it by
saying that spiders have no relationship
at all with any other creatures on the
EARTH and that they may actually be Wis
itors from some other planet who found
themselves here as result of some mys-
FERROUS cosmic accident. Which would ac-
count for the mysterious dread we have
of them.
Science has lately made some extraordi-
nary new discoveries about spiders which
keener, and their habits even more civ
ilized" than we had supposed.
The spider-world is an absolute matri-
archy. The female is the fighter, the
bread winner and the autocratic monarch.
The male is an understood, meek little
creature, who is likely to be eaten by his
mate if he doesn't behave himself. This
is one Of the most interesting facts in
natural science.
And it has been found that flies are by
no means the spiders only victim. They
have actually been known to capture a
mouse by winding their web around his
tail, swinging him off the ground and
having a banquet on him.
1t his been discovered also that certain
spiders hunt in gangs, which is surprise,
since it has been known that they are
cannibals and have no principles against
eating each other if they get chance.
But DIR. Z. w. Gudger, of the American
Museum of Natural History, who for years
has been studying the habits of these
wicked but very interesting little crea-
lures, has found that sometimes singly,
sometimes in bands, they attack tadpoles,
small frogs and snakes, lizards, and even
bats.
At first DIR. Gudger, one of the most
distinguished authorities on spiders in the
country, doubted his own conclusions. So
as a test a dozen tadpoles and three tree
frogs were put into jar with big
spider.
There was water in the jar for the tad
poles to swim in and bit of tree branch
to keep the spider and the frogs out of
the wet The spider ate nine of the tad
poles and then made meal of one OF the
little frogs.
Observation seems to prove that preda-
tory spiders assemble about shallow
ponds at the season when tadpoles, newly
Matched, are swimming about in flocks,
and gobble large numbers of them. Ocea-
sionally they get young and inexperi.
enced frog.
Tragedy! But the world is full of it.
That some big spiders go after fish and
catch them is beyond question. They
Irave been seen in the act on a number
of occasions. And experimental test has