Garden spider

“ The garden-spider, for instance, covers all the concentric filaments of its net, at regular intervals, with glutinous or adhesive globules, presenting under the microscope the appearance of pearls strung upon a thread, and destined to facilitate the capture of its prey."
The work of the geometrical spiders may at almost any time in the proper season be observed in the garden. As the flight of insects is mainly in an horizontal direction, the net is usually fixed in a perpendicular or somewhat oblique position to intercept them. ”

“ The Common Garden Spider (Epei ́ra diade ́ma) is a very good subject, and there can be no difficulty in procuring any number of specimens. The smallest garden will be sure to yield a plentiful supply; and even if we have no garden, a very superficial search among the hedgerows will give us as many as we can possibly want. Every one knows this spider, and the beautifully regular web which it makes. First of all, what one may call the outline of the web is spun—strong threads stretching from [99] point to point, to which are attached lines radiating from a common centre. ”

“ When spring comes, the youngsters will come out of their snug homes and scatter all over the neighborhood on their floating threads, like the little Crab-spiders you have read about.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE BUILDING OF A SPIDER’S WEB
The smallest garden contains the Garden Spiders, all clever weavers.
Let us go every evening, step by step, from one border of tall rosemaries to the next. Should things move too slowly, we will sit down at the foot of the shrubs, where the light falls favorably, and watch with unwearying attention. ”

“ Man cannot be too frequently guarded against his foes, more especially when [Pg 35] they are summoning all their forces, and no profession has more than that of the Horticulturist. Let a strict examination be made about the end of the month for the Red spider; they will be in operation some weeks before their depredations are observed on the foliage. The under side of the leaf is their resort in the first instance, and on such plants as have been already mentioned.
Observe daily the young shoots, in case the Green fly becomes numerous. ”

“ The red spider is another insect that does deadly work in the window-garden, especially in rooms where the temperature is high and there is little moisture in the air—a condition that generally prevails in the ordinary living-room. This pest is so small that its presence is seldom suspected until considerable injury has been done to the plants it works on. ”

“ Once he stopped in the middle of his song, looked keenly at a corner of the ceiling, and after a swift flight there, he returned with a spider in his beak; one can well believe what good helpers the insect-eating birds must be to the gardener, by destroying countless hosts of minute caterpillars and grubs that would otherwise prey upon the garden produce. ”

“ The enemy of the Box is the white spider. The insect spins its web on the Box and works from the inside. If the branches are pulled aside, the inside of the plant will be found full of dead leaves in the vicinity of the web. Recently I read in a well-known gardening monthly, that this spider could be destroyed by spraying with kerosene emulsion. I have some fine Box trees, and there were several white spider-webs on each. Watering with a very strong force of water had been tried without effect. ”

“ Among the insects, Masterman describes a gregarious spider which, when full-grown, has a black body half an inch in length—with a row of bright red spots on the side of the abdomen—four eyes, remarkably strong mandibles, and stout hairless legs an inch in length. They construct in concert huge webs, generally between two trees, ten or twelve feet from the ground. In a garden, among trees forty feet apart, these spiders had extended two long cables, as thick as pack-thread, to form the margin of each web, the lower being only four feet from the ground ”

“ The red spider is one of the most serious pests on house plants, and, in a dry season, on plants about the lawn. It thrives in a dry atmosphere. It usually lives on the under sides of the leaves. Syringing the plants frequently will destroy the pests. The thrips and slugs on rose bushes can nearly always be kept in check if one can spray or syringe his plants frequently. ”

“ Long feelers hang down from the tree-tops, and orchids and ferns grow profusely, high up among the branches. Everything possesses a brilliancy and size and vitality which has in it something fearful; indeed, it is as if it were an evil power brooding over everything and crushing weaker things in a relentless grasp. The spider-webs are like gauze handkerchiefs spread over the banks, in the centre of which are gaping doorways, where you see the monster spider sprawling with an insolent, will-you-walk-into-my-parlour air. ”

“ These great spiders of the tropics hunt for prey in much the same way. Only instead of catching flies on walls they prowl [391] about the branches of trees in search of small birds, springing upon them when they are roosting at night, and killing them almost immediately by a smart bite from their venomous fangs. These spiders, of course, are very large. Indeed, the body of a full-grown bird-spider is as big as a man's fist, while its great hairy legs cover nearly a square foot of ground when they are fully spread out. ”

“ As the tide rises the spiders take refuge in crevices and spin over their retreat a sheet of silk, impervious to water, beneath which they lie in safety with a supply of air until the ebb exposes the site again to the sun. The fresh-water spider (Argyroneta) lives amongst the weeds of lakes and ponds and, like Desis, is quite at home beneath the water either swimming from spot to spot or crawling amongst the stems of aquatic plants. As a permanent home the spider makes beneath the surface a thimble-shaped web, with inverted mouth, anchoring it to the weeds. ”

“ This species also possesses the habit of darting towards a person and hovering bee-like for some time close to his face. It also flies frequently into a house, at window or door, but does not, like birds of other kinds, become confused on such occasions, and is much too lively to allow its retreat to be cut off. It feeds a great deal on minute spiders, and is fond of exploring the surfaces of mud and brick walls, where it is seen deftly inserting its slender crimson bill into the small spider-holes in search of prey. ”

“ They serve the purpose of bird-lime—that is to say, they are there to aid in entangling insects which fly up against the web. Having spread his net, the spider returns to a little shelter woven on the under side of a leaf. Here he waits for his victims, holding in one of his claws a long, delicate thread attached to the web, so as to serve as a means of communication with the trap, the vibrations set up by the struggles of the captive giving warning by shaking the communication cord! ”

“ Many spiders spin webs to capture their prey. However spiders also have other means of capturing their prey. Some spiders spit a sticky web onto their prey. Others live in burrows with trapdoors. Whenever they feel hungry they come out and catch an unsuspecting insect. One species attaches a sticky drop to one end of its silken thread and holds it with its first three pairs of legs. When an insect passes by, the spider waves the thread at the insect and ropes it in, as it were.
Some spiders sit on flowers and catch insects that come to collect nectar. ”

“ Even though it should be adhering to the very edge of its web, the insect always runs instantly to the middle, where it can most effectually shake the web, and so successfully entangle its prey. When the web is torn, the spider immediately sets about repairing it, and that so neatly, that nothing like patching can ever be seen. The spider lies in wait even for the young of 248 the lizard, and after enveloping the head of the animal, bites its lips; a sight by no means unworthy of the amphitheatre itself, when it is one’s good fortune to witness it. ”

“ The moving shadow had attracted it, and, as the sequel showed, was mistaken for a fly running about over the leaves, and flitting from leaf to leaf. Now began a series of wonderful manœuvres on the spider's part, with the object of circumventing the imaginary fly, which seemed specially designed to meet this special case; for certainly no insect had ever before behaved in quite so erratic a manner. Each time the shadow flew past, the spider ran swiftly in the same direction, hiding itself under the leaves, always trying to get near without alarming its prey ”

“ In shape it is like a ball, or a horn, or a basket. Each kind of spider makes its web in the shape it likes best. In the nest the spider lays her eggs in a silk ball. The eggs, at first, are very soft. After a time they grow harder.
More than two spiders never live in a nest. Often a spider lives all alone. Spiders are often apt to bite off each other’s legs. A spider can live and run when half its legs are gone. But it can get a fine new leg as a crab can. ”

“ Its web, which is generally placed among the great leaves of the common agave, is sometimes strengthened near the centre by a pair or even four zigzag ribbons, which connect two adjoining rays. When any large insect, as a grasshopper or wasp, is caught, the spider, by a dexterous movement, makes it revolve very rapidly, and at the same time emitting a band of threads from its spinners, soon envelops its prey in a case like the cocoon of a silkworm. The spider now examines the powerless victim, and gives the fatal bite on the hinder part of its thorax ”

“ There is another class of spiders who have no stuff in them wherewith to make webs; they, therefore, wander about, looking out for food provided by the toil of their neighbours. Whenever they come to the web of a smaller spider, whose larder seems well supplied, they rush upon his domain—pursue him to his hole—eat him up if they can—reject him if he is too tough for their maws, and quietly possess themselves of all the legs and wings they find dangling in his meshes: these spiders I call enemies—the world calls them lawyers!"
Philip laughed: "And who are the first class of spiders?" ”

“ They live in holes in the ground or in trees, or sometimes in the fork of a tree-branch. In such hiding places they spend the hours of day-light, emerging at night in search of food. Their large size and uncanny appearance have attracted the attention of the collector, and a great many species are known, but the fact that they chiefly inhabit tropical countries has militated against any very extended study of their habits, and the few items of information we possess are best related with regard to the particular spider observed, and not taken as necessarily characteristic of the whole tribe. ”

“ These little spiders need to be kept constantly supplied with flies, which should be killed and placed near their nests; they are often so greedy that they will [ 245 ] attempt to drag a house-fly entire down their tubes for which it is much too large, when the door is pushed open, and the fly remains sticking in the entrance to the nest with its legs up in the air. One may even feed these spiders oneself by approaching carefully and, without causing any vibration, pushing the fly, placed on the end of a pencil, within reach of the spider. ”

“ It has eight eyes like most spiders, and feeds on insects of every species; nay, it is even asserted, that young birds do not escape it, out of which this spider sucks the blood: its web is small but very strong. Upon the whole, it is such a hideous creature, that the very sight of it is sufficient to occasion a tremor of abhorrence, even in persons most accustomed to inspect the deformities of nature. Innumerable indeed are the pests and dangers to which one is hourly exposed in the woods of this tropical climate ”

“ Returning, it succeeds, by a more skilful effort, in drawing the spider from its retreat and hurling it to the ground, where, terrified and helpless, it falls an easy prey. Should the insect bungle in its first attack and become entangled in the web, it would itself become the victim. Certain wasps thus appear to seek out particular species of spiders as food for their larvae. Others are less discriminate in their tastes. Again, some, as in the cases cited above, store their egg-nest with a single spider, while others collect many for the purpose. ”

“ The fangs with which the spider seizes its prey are hollow, and emit a venomous fluid into the body of the victim, which speedily benumbs and kills it. In Palestine and other countries a kind of spider is found which is entirely nocturnal in its habits, and never either hunts or feeds in daylight, but makes itself a little home, where it abides safely till sunset. It is called the trap-door spider, from the curious way in which it protects the entrance to its nest. It bores a hole in the dry earth of a bank a footp. ”

“ There is no animal or insect that makes anything quite so wonderful and beautiful as what these little creatures spin.
The spider’s web is really a snare for catching her food. The strands of it are so fine as often to be invisible in some lights even in the daytime, and of course quite invisible at night. Sometimes the beetle or flying insect is so strong that he can tear the web and get free, but not often, for the spider can do wonders with her thread. She spins ropes and throws them at her big prey and doesn’t go near it till it is bound and helpless. ”

“ Spiders that Kill Birds.—Everybody knows that spiders catch flies and other insects; but that some of them kill little birds may not be so generally known. A traveller in Brazil tells us that he caught one of them in the very act, while going through a forest in the Amazons. The spider was a hairy fellow, with a body two inches long, and eight legs measuring seven inches each, from end to end. ”