Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1882 — The Spider. [ARTICLE]

The Spider.

The ingenuity of the common house and garden spicier in weaving their web and catching their prey is a matter which comes under the notice of everybody. It takes four millions of the little silken threads spun by the spider to make a filament as large as a human hair, and yet the spider will frequently manufacture half a dozen large webs in a single season, each single thread being made up of thousands of smaller ones. The structure of the spider is a marvel of ingenuity, and, when examined under the microscope, fills the mind with astonishment. The claw is vastly more complicated than that of the lion, consisting of three retraotile hooks, eaoh one having also, on its under side, a row of notched teeth. There are two sets of these mandibles or jaws, one for seizing its prey «*nd the other for devouring it. There are six, and in some cases eight, sets of eyes in the spider, which have a singularly brilliant, watchful, threatening look, and enable the creature to see on all sides at once. The fangs are jointed and can be freely turned, and at the point of the claw is the opening of a poison gland, which discharges its venom precisely as in the case of a serpent. These singular creatures are found in every portion of the world, but grow the largest in warm climates. They are carnivorous and suck the juices of their prey, sometimes, indeed, eating the fragments, the females being much the more fierce, and ready at all tunes to make war on the males, whom they often devour in the breeding season. Spiders are very cleanly, and spend much time in cleaning their limbs from dust and dirt with the toothed combs and brushes which they wear on their mandibles. In making their webs spiders display great adaptation to circumstances, and indicate almost a reasoning power in varying their methods. Descending by the silken thread which it uncoils from its abdomen, the spider has the power of rolling up the flexible bridge as it ascends again. Others, again, throw out a cable m the direction of the wind, till it attaches itself to some tree or other object, when the spider strengthens and passes over it, and so the insect passes long distances without touching sbe ground. Some gossamer soiders, indeed, speed through the air, buoyed up by their own light threats, unsupported except by the waving motion of the wind. The most ingenious portion of the spider’s lair is the circular tunnel in which the hunter lies enscoused. This has a double outlet, one opening on the web, the other giving passage below. It is from the former that the spider launokes itself on its prey, while the other fills the part of a trap door. The assassin is too cunning to leave anything to betray the nature of his slaughter-house. After it has sucked the blood of the victim, the remains are dragged up and shot down through the trap-door, and the spider then takes ambush for another incautious fly.—“ A World of Wonders