Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1891 — THE EPEIRA SPIDER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE EPEIRA SPIDER.

One of the Most Brilliant Spiders Found in American Gardens. As the butterfly excels the moth in brilliancy or color, so the epeira excels all other spiders. They weave webs of enormous size, with large and regular meshes. Who doe* not know the big spiders of the parks and gardens, whose web often embraces the breadth of an entire thoroughfare ? Who has not had occasion to admire the splendid appearance of the epeira diadema, with' its reddish-yellow coat, marked in the upper part with dark lines, a sort of design resembling the cross of St. Denis? Among the spiders in general the male, in point of size, is much inferior

to the female, but it is rare to meet with so enormous a disproportion as exists between the sexes of tho.,black and golden epeira. The male, when contrasted with the female, is a veritable pigmy. The question is, what chance has he when his fancy turns to amorous thoughts, and he erects his tiny tent near the vast' structure of his Dulcinea?

THE SPIDER.