Web (biology)

“ The framework is of strong webbing and upon this is closely woven the sticky spiral which is so elastic, so ethereal, and yet strong enough to entangle a good-sized insect. How knowing seems the little worker, as when, the web and his dew of concealment being completed, he spins a strong cable from the center of the web to the entrance of his watch-tower. ”

“ The organs which spiders possess for secreting material and for making a web could not have been gradually evolved. The whole apparatus involved in making the web would be useless until sufficiently developed to make a web. ”

“ When the course of the galleries is traced from the entrances, a small excavation is reached, across which is stretched, in the form of a spider's web, a net-work of squares about one-quarter inch across, the ends of the web being fastened firmly to the earth of the sides of the cell. In each one of the squares, supported by the web, sits one of the honey-making workers—prisoners, for locomotion is impossible, the distended abdomen which constitutes the honey-bag being at least twenty times as large as the rest of the body. ”

“ The web is the snare in which the insects on which it lives are caught, and from which they have no power to escape, for as soon as the insect is entangled, the spider, in his hiding-place, knows by the shaking of the threads that his prey is secure, pounces upon it, benumbs it by one prick of his poison-fang, binds it fast with silken threads, and carries it off to his "dismal den," as the verse about "the spider and the fly" calls the place where he lies in wait for any winged thing which may "come buzzing by." ”

“ We know in what a strange way the Spider weaves her web and divides the area of the web into a large number of equal parts or sectors, a number which is almost always the same in the work of each species of Spider. The Spider darts here and there when laying her spokes as if she had no plan, and this irresponsible way of working produces a beautiful web like the rose-window in a church, a web which no designer could have drawn better with compasses. ”

“ As soon as the inner spiral is found in the way a part of it is cut out, and by the time the outer spiral is finished the inner is reduced to the small and close portion near the center.... The whole making of the web seems to be done entirely by feeling, and is done as well in the dark as in daylight. When the spider is active and the food supply good, a fresh web is made every day, the old one being torn down and thrown away. ”

“ In 2008, the Internet’s founder, Tim Berners-Lee, reflecting on his topsy-turvy child, noted that the Web’s vast emergent properties are perhaps best modelled by biological concepts, such as plasticity, population dynamics, food chains, and ecosystems. ”

“ It consists of a reticulated web, of a white or yellow colour, the shreds of which, when examined by the microscope, are found to be constituted by small globules of animal matter. It is more or less compact in different insects, and even in the same insect according to its age, being loosest and most stringy in young individuals. ”

“ A fine large web it was when finished, and with this about it that set it off from all the other webs thereabouts, that it seemed to stand straight up in the air, without anything to show what held it. It takes pretty sharp eyes to make out a single strand of a spider-web, even a very little way off. ”

“ WEB addresses fundamental educational and pedagogical issues to determine the nature, extent, and content of, and delivery tools available for, bioinformatics degree and training programs, and to provide focus points and suggestions for improvement of nascent degree programs. ”

“ There is a system of successive incarnations and matter is continually passing from one embodiment to another. These instances must suffice to illustrate the central biological idea of the web of life, the interlinked System of Animate Nature. Linnæus spoke of the Systema Naturæ, meaning the orderly hierarchy of classes, orders, families, genera, and species; but we owe to Darwin in particular some knowledge of a more dynamic Systema Naturæ, the network of vital inter-relations. This has become more and more complex as evolution has continued, and man's web is most complex of all. ”

“ It begins at the middle to weave its web, and 247 then extends it by adding the threads in rings around, like a warp upon the woof: forming the meshes at equal intervals, but continually enlarging them as the web increases in breadth, it finally unites them all by an indissoluble knot. With what wondrous art does it conceal the snares that lie in wait for its prey in its checkered nettings! How loose is the body of the web as it yields to the blasts, and how readily does it catch all objects which come in its way! ”

“ Does reason, therefore, enter into the process of web-making, or is it merely an instinctive one? This being a difficult question to answer, instead of doing so I will quote the minute and interesting account given by Thompson in his Passions of Animals of how the spider spins its web under ordinary conditions, premising, however, that, in almost every point, different people, who all write as though they had been witnesses of what they describe, appear to differ in their opinion. ”

“ Coming now to general habits, our attention is claimed by the only general habit that is of interest—namely, that of web-building. The instinct of constructing nets for the capture of prey occurs in no other class of animals, while in spiders it not only attains to an extraordinary degree of perfection (so that, in the opinion of some geometers, the instinct is not less wonderful in this respect than is that displayed by the hive-bee in the construction [208] of its cells) , but also ramifies into a number of diverse directions. ”

“ If anyone destroys the web, she begins spinning again at the rising or setting of the sun, for it is at this time that her prey usually falls into the web. The female both makes the web and pursues the prey. The male only enjoys it with her.
6. There are two kinds of graceful spiders that spin a thick web, one large and one small. The one with long legs keeps watch suspended above its web, that the creatures which fall into the web may not be frightened when taken, and then it falls upon them from above, for its size prevents [Pg 260] it from being easily concealed. ”

“ Those which radiate from the centre to the circumference are strong and smooth, while those which unite them are much slighter, and are covered with tiny globules set at regular intervals. When the web is newly spun, these globules are found to be nearly as tenacious as birdlime, and it is by these means that an insect which falls into the web is arrested,{101} and cannot extricate itself until the spider can seize it. After awhile the globules become dry, refuse to perform their office, and then the spider has to construct another web. ”

“ That means that the more pages from which one spiders downward through links, the smaller the proportion of new sites one will uncover; if spidering the links of 1000 sites retrieved through a search engine or Web directory turns up 500 additional distinct adult sites, spidering an additional 1000 sites may turn up, for example, only 250 additional distinct sites, and the proportion of new sites uncovered will continue to diminish as more pages are spidered. ”

“ The search engine index, catalog, or database, where everything the spider found is stored; The search engine software that actually sifts through everything in the index to find matches and then ranks or sorts them into a list of results or hits. Important points to consider about search engines: Spiders are programmed to return to websites on a regular basis, but the time interval varies widely from engine to engine. Monthly or better is considered "fresh." When you use a search engine, you are searching the index or database, not the web pages themselves. ”

“ Once granting the power of forming a web, and it is evident that there is much potential service to which this power may be put with reference to the voracious habits of the animal; and therefore it is not to be wondered that both the anatomical structures and their correlated instincts should attain to extreme perfection in sundry lines of development. ”

“ But each worker has to select a particular part of this web for his study, for the reason that no man can undertake the whole; it once was that a strong mind could grasp the entire web, like as the mother spider controls all lines of her snare, but now the web is so great and complex that we single workers are like spiderlings upon it, each looking for his own particular little gnat. ”

“ The spider’s web is a compensating contrivance, of a very ingenious character. This creature is made to feed on flies; yet how was it to catch them, for it had no wings? This might seem to be a case of difficulty, but the web is a net, and the spider is not only taught how to weave it, but his body furnishes the thread! How ingenious, how wonderful, how multiplied, are the resources of the God of Nature!
In many species of insects, the eye is fixed, and cannot be turned in its socket. ”

“ The position must also offer favourable opposite points for the attachment of the web itself. People have often puzzled their brains, wondering how spiders, without being able to fly, had managed first to stretch their web through the air between two opposite points. But the little creature succeeds in accomplishing this difficult task in the most various and ingenious ways. It either, when the distance is not too great, throws a moist viscid pellet, joined to a thread, which will stick where it touches; or hangs itself by a thread in the air and lets itself be driven by the wind to the spot ”

“ So, too, when they say that those fine webs which they speak of as being produced from atoms, are self-wrought by them without skill or sensation, who can bear to hear of these weaver atoms whom even the spider excels in skill when he spins his web out of himself. ”

“ As a matter of fact these spiders work in clear weather and at different hours of the day, but the web is so fine as to be next to invisible unless covered with moisture, when it at once attracts the eye, like a writing in invisible ink which becomes manifest only under the right conditions. ”

“ Our own common garden or geometric spider is as good a web-spinner, perhaps, as any that exists, or, if not, it is at least as good as any that I can think of at the moment. Everyone is familiar with the general appearance of the web and the mathematical regularity of its outline, whilst all who have watched its construction must have been astonished at the skill displayed by the spider, both in the weaving and placing of it. ”

“ Cyberdiversity is an online approach to facilitate species recognition regardless of taxonomic determination status. Web-based tools may include collections of digital images, DNA sequences, or ideally both. The cyberdiversity approach engages several recognized impediments to the understanding of fundamental aspects of megadiversity and the wider adoption of arthropod data for conservation assessment. ”

“ The question thus arises whether this webbing is of the same nature as that shown to be a dominant in Man, and indeed whether the phenomenon in pigeons is really meristic at all. There is some difference perceptible between the two conditions; for in Man there is not so much a development of a special web-like skin uniting the digits as a want of proper division between the digits themselves, and in extreme cases two digits may be represented by a single one. ”

“ The moment a worm comes to an edge, it lets out a web from its mouth before descending, and then it attaches itself to it and lets itself down; it hangs awhile in the air, and watches, and if it wants to get down farther, it does so, and if not, it pulls itself up by its web.
For days at a time the worms did nothing but eat. ”

“ In seeking its prey it watches in the middle of its web. When anything falls into the web and the centre is moved, the spider surrounds and encloses it in a web, until it is rendered powerless, and then takes it up and carries it to her store. ”

“ When we see the same elements, combined in the same weight-proportions, produce sometimes harmless substances, sometimes terrible poisons, in one case evolve colorless or dingy products, in another brilliant hues, we become convinced that primal matter is of little consequence in comparison with the weaver who arranges its threads, and knows beforehand what the aspect of the web will be. ”

“ To realise to ourselves this very strange idea of the structure of a spiral vessel as it appeared to Grew, we ought to know that he thinks that all cell-walls, even those of the parenchyma, are composed of an extremely fine web; his previous comparison of cell-tissue with foam was only intended to make the more obvious circumstances clear to the reader; his real idea is, that the substance of the walls of vessels and cells consists of an artificial web of the finest threads. ”

“ As the spider’s web is only her snare, she naturally has to have some kind of home, which must be quite near to her place of business. If you look very close and follow one of the strands of the web you will find some little dark cranny where the huntress can hide. If the web is amongst trees it will probably be a leaf she has pulled together with her thread and made into a dark little tunnel out of which she darts when something is caught. ”

“ Q. Who teaches the spider to make its web? A. God. Q. Could any man in the world make a spider's web? A. No, no one could do it.
The teacher may then add thus:—Thus you see, little children, that every living thing has some merit of its own, and can do many things which we cannot do, although God has given us the means to become so much wiser than they; and be sure you are not frightened at them, nor put them to unnecessary pain. Some other day I will tell you what is the shape of the spider's web, and shew you what a number of regular figures the spider's web is composed of. ”