Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1881 — A Spider’s Intelligence. [ARTICLE]

A Spider’s Intelligence.

Almost all spiders leave a cable behind as they travel from point to point. The common geometric spider (epeira diadema) shoots out lines with great facility, as a correspondent found out one day. He says: “One day, when holding an epeira suspended to my finger by its cable, it disappeared as if by magic. To discover its modus operand!, I tried another in bright sunlight, and observed that while it was hanging thus suspended and perfectly motionless it was shooting out threads in various directions. These threads floated on, spreading out into three or four radii, and covering about sixty degrees, but all in a common direction. At length one came in contact with a post and adhered to it. As soon as the spider found that one of the cables had found an anchorage, it cut the one by which I held it captive, ran up this cable of hope, and regained its liberty. UhASS in history: Teacher—“ Who was the hero of Cowpens?” An awful silence follows, whipli at last broken by the little snub-nuged boy in the back rowj who pries in piling vdjpe, “Sitfjpg